President Vladimir Putin visited the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol on Sunday, TASS news agency reported.
Mariupol in the Donetsk region was captured by Russian forces after bloody fighting last May and has been under the control of Moscow fighters ever since.
The Russian president was seen driving around the city during a visit to several districts.
He stopped along the way to talk to residents, according to TASS.
Putin also met with senior officials overseeing military operations in Ukraine, according to state media.
The leader, who is facing an arrest warrant for war crimes, also met with Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff in charge of Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The talks took place at the Rostov-on-Don command post in southern Russia, TASS reported.
This is because the Russian president, who launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February, has erupted into conflict in Europe, killing millions and thousands of civilians and displacing thousands. This is the first time I have visited this country since being deported. I got hurt.
The day before, Putin made a surprise visit. Crimea Commemorating the 9th anniversary of the annexation of the Black Sea Peninsula Ukraine.
His trips to war-torn countries International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant about billing war crimesclaiming he was personally responsible for the kidnapping of children from Ukraine following the Russian invasion.
In Sevastopol, Crimea’s largest city, President Putin met with Moscow-based governor Mikhail Razvodjayev to introduce an art school and children’s center as part of a project to develop a historical park on the site of the Russian state, an ancient Greek colony. visited. the news agency said.
“Our president knows how to surprise. Everything was ready for the report.After all, the president came personally.By car.He was at the wheel himself.On such a historic day, the president always came to Sevastopol and Sevastopol I am with the people, we have an incredible leader in our country, ”Razbodjayev wrote in Telegram.
annexation of russia Crimea The move from Ukraine in 2014 has soured relations between Moscow and the West, with most of the world denouncing it as illegal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the peace talks would include Russia’s withdrawal from the peninsula as well as the territories it had occupied since last year.
