Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Mariupol, a Ukrainian city devastated by the bombardments, the Kremlin press service said on Sunday, quoted by Russian news agencies.
This is the Russian leader's first trip to this Ukrainian port city that has been besieged for months and taken by the Russian army in May 2022. This surprise visit to Mariupol 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.
This night visit does not pass on the side of the Ukrainian authorities. “As if he were a thief, Putin visited the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, taking shelter behind the night. First, it's safer. And also, the night allows him to emphasize what he wants to show, and keeps the city his army totally destroyed and its few surviving inhabitants safe from prying eyes,” the ministry said. of the Ukrainian Defense on Twitter.
The Kremlin clarified that Russian President Vladimir Putin decided at the last moment to go to Mariupol, insisting on the "spontaneous" nature of his trip. "It was all very spontaneous," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, referring to the Russian leader's first trip to Mariupol. "His trips to town were not planned either", as was the visit to a local musical theater, nor his meeting with inhabitants of the port city, he assured.
According to images broadcast by Russian public television, the trip took place at night, Vladimir Putin being introduced in particular to the night lighting of the streets of Mariupol and speaking with residents. “We are praying for you,” one of the residents assured Vladimir Putin, saying the city was “a little piece of paradise.”
The Russian leader also visited a reconstructed local musical theater and followed the presentation of a report on the reconstruction works of this devastated city, according to the Kremlin. According to the same source, Putin also held a meeting in Rostov-on-Don (southern Russia), not far from the Ukrainian border, with Russian army officials, including the head of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
He had previously traveled to Crimea on Saturday for the 9th anniversary of the annexation of this Ukrainian peninsula by Russia, also under international sanctions. It was his first visit to Crimea since 2021.
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