Vladimir Putin visited the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, devastated by Russian bombing shortly after the February 2022 invasion, for his first trip to an area conquered by Moscow, angering Kiev which denounced the "cynicism" of the head of the Kremlin.
During this surprise trip in the night from Saturday to Sunday, the Russian president, who arrived by helicopter, toured the city at the wheel of a car, the Kremlin said.
The visit took place at night, according to images broadcast by Russian television showing Vladimir Putin conversing with residents. “We are praying for you,” a resident assured her, saying the city was “a little piece of paradise”.
The Russian president made this night visit "as if he were a thief", retorted the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
"The night allows him to emphasize what he wants to show and keeps the city, which his army totally destroyed, and its few surviving inhabitants safe from prying eyes," the ministry said on Twitter.
"The criminals always return to the scene of their crimes... The murderer of thousands of Mariupol families came to admire the ruins of the city and its graves. Cynicism and absence of remorse", wrote on Twitter the Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak.
Vladimir Putin also visited a reconstructed musical theater and followed the presentation of a report on the construction sites underway in the ruined city, according to the Kremlin.
"It was all very spontaneous," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. "His trips to town weren't planned either," he said.
A symbol of Ukrainian resistance, the port city of Mariupol was besieged and bombarded for many weeks by Russian forces at the start of the invasion of Ukraine.
The city finally fell in May 2022 after fierce resistance from Ukrainian soldiers entrenched, alongside civilians, in the underground passages of the huge Azovstal steelworks.
According to kyiv, Mariupol was 90% destroyed and at least 20,000 people died there. The European Union had called the siege of the city a "major war crime".
This surprise visit is above all the first trip of the master of the Kremlin to the Donbass, in the conquered zone, since the start of the Russian offensive on February 24, 2022, which earned Moscow a series of severe international sanctions.
In the region of Zaporijjia, in the south of Ukraine, Russian bombardments killed Sunday three people and injured two others, according to a report by local authorities.
According to the Kremlin, Mr Putin also held a meeting in Rostov-on-Don, in southern Russia, not far from the Ukrainian border, with Russian military officials, including the head of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
The Ukrainian City Council of Mariupol, a refugee in territory held by the Ukrainian authorities, castigated the visit to "the occupied city" by an "international criminal".
If it took place at night, it was "probably so as not to see in the light of day the city killed by its liberation", added the Council.
The City Council was thus referring to the arrest warrant issued Friday against Mr. Putin by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which accuses him of a war crime for “illegal deportation” of Ukrainian children.
The Court has also attempted to verify whether the bombing and siege of Mariupol could constitute a crime against humanity, but it still lacks elements to reach such a conclusion, due to lack of access to the region.
The Kremlin has ruled "null and void" the arrest warrant of the ICC, which Moscow does not recognize the jurisdiction.
Mr. Putin had previously visited Crimea on Saturday, for the ninth anniversary of the annexation in 2014 of this Ukrainian peninsula by Russia. It was his first visit to Crimea since 2021.
Vladimir Putin's visit to Russian-controlled Ukraine took place shortly before Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Russia, scheduled for Monday, is supposed to open a "new era" in relations between the two allies.
19/03/2023 18:48:52 - Kiev (Ukraine) (AFP) © 2023 AFP
