+ Ukraine war in the news blog + | Putin visits Mariupol for first time since war began

Day 386 since the beginning of the war: The Ukrainian government is planning to reappoint several ministries. Putin is on a surprise visit to Crimea. All information in the news blog.

06:26: Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited the Russian-held port city of Mariupol for the first time since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to information from the Kremlin on Sunday, Putin flew in a helicopter to the city, which had been largely destroyed by Russian bombardments, and undertook a city tour there by car. The Kremlin boss spoke to residents of Mariupol and was informed about the reconstruction work. On Saturday, Putin visited the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of its annexation.

Mariupol on the Sea of ​​Azov had been bombarded and besieged by Russia since the beginning of the war in late February 2022. On April 21, Moscow announced the capture of the port city. Some 2,000 Ukrainian militants then holed up at the sprawling Azovstal Steelworks in Mariupol for almost a month before the government ordered them to surrender to the Russians to save their lives in May. According to Kiev, 90 percent of the city was destroyed and at least 20,000 people were killed.

7:49 p.m.: Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called on Americans to revolt over the alleged imminent arrest of former US President Donald Trump. “Take back your country, Americans! Fight back!” Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel on Saturday. How seriously the 57-year-old meant his demands remained unclear.

He concluded his comment with the probably ironic remark that he wrote this at the request of the presidential candidate “Colonel Daniil Fyodorovich Trump”. He was probably alluding to speculation about the relationship between the former US President and the Kremlin. Shortly before, Trump had called on his supporters to protest because he is said to be arrested next Tuesday. (You can read more about this here.) Trump is being investigated in connection with a hush money payment to a porn actress. Trump denies the allegations.

In his text, Medvedev also addressed the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. “The idiots in Europe want to arrest a stranger, and on March 21 they will arrest one of their own people in America,” Medvedev wrote. In the past few months, the politician has attracted attention several times with extremely sharp and sometimes bizarre attacks on the West. Observers suspect that he wants to give himself the image of a hardliner – for a possible successor to Putin.

5:39 p.m.: The grain agreement between Russia, Ukraine and Turkey has been extended once again. It would actually have expired on March 19th. However, there were different statements about the duration: The Ukrainian Minister of Infrastructure Olexandr Kubrakow announced that the agreement had been extended by 120 days. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova disagreed. The agreement has been extended by 60 days, she said, according to the RBC news platform. Here you can read more about it.

5:10 p.m.: According to official information, two ministers will be exchanged in the Ukrainian government next week. “Today at the parliamentary group meeting of the political party ‘Servants of the People’ we discussed cadre changes in the government that are planned for the coming week,” Prime Minister Denys Schmyhal said on his Telegram channel. This affects the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Industry.

The current Minister of Education and Science, Serhiy Shkarlet, is to be replaced by Oksen Lisovyi, who was previously director of the Small Academy of Sciences and served as a volunteer in an airborne brigade. The Ministry of Strategic Industrial Sectors is to be taken over by the former head of the Ukrainian railways, Oleksandr Kamyshin. He will replace Pavlo Ryabykin.