with videoRussian President Vladimir Putin has been to the war front in Ukraine for the first time. He paid a surprise visit to the Russian-occupied port city of Mariupol and the Crimean peninsula on Saturday. This is reported by the state media in Russia. Is it a coincidence that Putin shows his face two days after an international arrest warrant against him?
Foreign editors
The images from Russian state media on Twitter leave little to the imagination. Vladimir Putin arrives in Mariupol by helicopter, then drives the car himself in which he drives through the city in the dark with Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, talks to happy residents on the street and visits a couple who are taken by surprise by his arrival.
The only footage from Mariupol comes from Russian state television and has not been independently verified. There are no photos from foreign press agencies. They are from his visit to Crimea this weekend, on the day that Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula exactly nine years ago.
According to the Russian state news agency Tass, Putin then flew by helicopter to Mariupol for his first visit to the occupied territory in the Donbas region since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The visit was not announced. Putin then drove by car to various districts in the city, where he spoke with residents. Among other things, he stopped in the Nevsky neighborhood, a new residential area built by the Russian army.
Putin, together with Deputy Prime Minister Khusnullin, visited a couple who have moved to the new neighbourhood. ,,Do you live here? Do you like it?” Putin asks the residents. “Very much,” the woman replies. “It’s a little piece of heaven we have here now.” She folds her hands and thanks Putin for “the victory.”
According to Khusnullin, many residents have since returned. Mariupol had half a million inhabitants before the war and was home to Azovstal, one of the largest steel factories in Europe. He informed Putin extensively about the reconstruction of homes, bridges, hospitals, infrastructure and a concert hall. “The city center has been badly damaged,” said Khusnullin. “We want to complete the reconstruction of the center before the end of the year. The center is very nice.”
First win
The southern Ukrainian port city was the hotbed of the war in the first months after the invasion and was heavily shelled. After a long and bloody battle, Mariupol fell to Russia in May last year, celebrating its first major victory in the city. Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky promised this week in his daily video message to recapture the city.
Since the Russians subsequently failed to capture the capital Kiev, they concentrated on conquering the Donbas in southeastern Ukraine. Putin’s tour this weekend took him closer to the front in Ukraine than he has been since the invasion began.
City of war crimes
The visit comes a day after the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued an arrest warrant against him for war crimes and the illegal deportation of hundreds of children from Ukraine. Putin’s spokesman called the accusation “outrageous and unacceptable.”
The Russian president himself has not yet publicly responded, but his visit to the occupied territories is seen outside Russia as an act of defiance and provocation. The Russian bombing of a maternity hospital and theater in the city, which killed hundreds last year, is regarded by the international community as war crimes.
While Ukrainian President Zelensky regularly visits the battlefield to boost the morale of his troops, Putin largely directs his “special military operation” in the neighboring country within the Kremlin’s walls.
Putin traveled from Mariupol to Rostov in southern Russia. There he would have spoken with the Russian army top, including chief of staff Valeri Gerasimov. The Ukrainian government has not yet responded to Putin’s visit to Mariupol.
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