Just over a year after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Mariupolthe port city which has been taken since May 2022, the Kremlin press service reported.
Despite the fact that the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against him for war crimes, the Russian president arrived by helicopter to the city located in the south of the Donetsk region, an area that last year was one of the most devastated by bombing.
During his short stay, he toured in a car driven by himself several neighborhoods of the city, accompanied by the Deputy Prime Minister, Marat Khusnulin, who informed him of the progress of construction and reconstruction work in and around Mariupol. In addition, he met in Rostov-on-Don, in the south of Russia, with the command of the military campaign in Ukraine. “The head of state listened to the reports of the chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valeri Gerasimov, and other military chiefs,” the press release said.
Putin visited the Ukrainian city of Mariupol and sparked outrage. Photo: Reuters.
Putin’s visit to Mariupol generated repudiation and indignation among the local inhabitants and a large part of the world.
“The international criminal Putin visited occupied Mariupol, at night, probably in order not to see the city, murdered for its ‘liberation’, in daylight.. As befits a thief, Putin visited the Ukrainian city of Mariupol undercover at night,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said.
