The Russian President, Vladimir Putinmade a surprise visit to the shell-ravaged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, on his first trip to the occupied zone since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
(Read here: Could Vladimir Putin end up in prison after the ICC arrest warrant?)
Putin arrived by helicopter in Mariupol, in the Donbasand took a tour of the city driving a vehicle himself, the Kremlin reported on Sunday.
According to the images broadcast by Russian state television, the trip took place at night.
In the images you can see the Russian president in the streets talking with residents.
“We pray for you,” says a resident, who says that the city is “a little paradise.”
Putin also visited the newly reconstructed local philharmonic and received a report on the works of reconstruction of Mariupol, detailed the Kremlin press service.
It is his first visit to this port city in southeastern Ukraine, devastated after months of siege by Russian forces, who captured it in May 2022.
According to the Kremlin, the Russian president also held a meeting in Rostov-on-Don (southern Russia), near the Ukrainian border, with Russian army officers, including the chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov.
The Russian president arrived in Mariupol after visiting Crimea on Saturday, on the anniversary of the annexation of that peninsula by Moscow in 2014.
arrest warrant pending
The Russian president made these trips the day after the International Criminal Court (ICC)based in The Hague, called for his arrest for the deportation of children in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.
kyiv claims that more than 16,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia since the start of the conflict.
Russia, which is not part of the ICC member countries, considered that order “null and void.”
In Sevastopol, the home port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, Putin attended the inauguration of a children’s art school with local governor Mikhail Razvojayev, according to footage from Rossia-1 public television.
“Our President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin knows how to surprise. In the good sense of the word,” Razvojaev wrote on Telegram.
The visit marked no pause in military operations in eastern Ukraine, where at least two people have been killed in Russian shelling, according to Ukrainian sources.
Russia annexed Crimea on March 18, 2014, following a referendum not recognized by Ukraine or the international community.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky reaffirmed Ukraine’s sovereignty over Crimea in January and its refusal to include it as a concession in any peace negotiations.
New era
Chinese President Xi Jinping will arrive in Russia on Monday. in a visit in which a series of agreements will be signed that will mark, according to the kremlinthe beginning of a “new era” in relations between the two allied countries.
Xi’s visit, scheduled until Wednesday, will take place almost 13 months after the start of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, which has largely isolated Moscow internationally.
Westerners hope that Xi will take advantage of his visit to Moscow to ask his “old friend” Vladimir Putin to end the conflict.
China has not condemned the military offensive and has tried to present itself as a neutral actor in the contest. His position has been criticized by Western leaders, who believe the Asian powerhouse is giving Moscow diplomatic cover.
The United States even accused China of considering arms delivery to Russia, which Beijing strongly denied. Despite these accusations, the two leaders are going to discuss military and technical cooperation, according to the Kremlin.
AFP
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