The visit of President Vladimir Putin has not been independently verified. The video is material broadcast by Russian state television. It was published by the news agency Reuters.
14:57•Updated 16:28
President Vladimir Putin allegedly met the city’s residents and visited their homes by invitation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has paid a surprise visit to the occupied Ukrainian part of Mariupol, say the Russian state news agencies Tass and Ria Novosti. This is Putin’s first visit to the Donbas region, which Russia has annexed in violation of international law.
According to the Kremlin, Putin arrived in the city by helicopter and moved there by car. Putin is said to have spoken with local authorities of the occupation regime about rebuilding the city. The city suffered enormous destruction during Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
Ylen, a journalist familiar with Mariupol, recognizes a clip in the Putin video published on Telegram that is from Mariupol.
Among other things, the theater in Mariupol was destroyed in a Russian attack at the beginning of the war a year ago in March. According to unconfirmed eyewitness reports, there could have been almost 300 people in the theater.
Ministry: Visited at night, as befits a thief
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine wrote on Twitter that Putin visited Mariupol at night, as befits a thief.
– Darkness gives him the opportunity to emphasize what he wants to show. Darkness keeps the city completely destroyed by his army and its few survivors hidden from prying eyes, the Ministry of Defense tweeted.
According to the Ministry of Defense, visiting at night has also been a safer option for Putin than visiting the city during the day.
Mariupol’s city council in exile also pointed out that Putin visited the city at night.
– International criminal Putin visited occupied Mariupol. He watched the “rebuilding of the city” at night. Probably because one would not see the city destroyed by the war in the light of day, the city council wrote in Telegram.
Saturday in Crimea
Putin visited the Crimean peninsula on Saturday to celebrate the ninth anniversary of its occupation, Russia’s state-run Rossiya-1 TV channel reported. During a surprise visit to the city of Sevastopol, Putin, among other things, visited the school of the region’s governor Mikhail Razvozhaev with.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin on Friday. Its reason was the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children from the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia, which is a war crime.
British intelligence: a tacit admission from Russia of the failure of the objectives
According to the British Ministry of Defence’s daily intelligence review, the declaration of Melitopol as the temporary capital of the Zaporizhzhia region was Russia’s tacit acknowledgment that it is unlikely to be able to implement its previously planned main goals in Ukraine in the near future.
According to the ministry, the declaration of the occupied Melitopol as the capital was reported in early March as a temporary measure until the city of Zaporizhzhia was under Russian control.
Last September, Russia illegally annexed the Zaporizhzhia region, but the Russian troops have not succeeded in occupying the industrial city of Zaporizhia. It is located approximately 35 kilometers from the current front line.
STT
Updated on March 19 at 16:27 with, among other things, Ukraine’s comments.