MOSCOW / MARIUPOL (dpa-AFX) – For the first time since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the Kremlin chief Wladimir Putin visited the occupied territories of the neighboring country. As the Kremlin announced on Sunday night, Putin had paid a “working visit” to the port city of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, which had been destroyed in heavy fighting. Russian state television showed the 70-year-old at the wheel of a car driving through the city at night. Damage to buildings could also be seen.
After his arrival in a helicopter, he informed himself about the situation during a tour and also talked to residents of the city, the Kremlin said. Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Marat Chusnullin informed Putin about the status of the reconstruction work. “People are starting to return to the city,” Chusnullin said from the passenger seat. Street lighting and bus services are back in Mariupol.
According to the report, state television also showed Putin’s visit to the city’s philharmonic hall, where the president took a seat in a hall. According to Chusnullin, a university building and student residence is also intact. Citizens were also shown thanking Putin for the unannounced visit.
According to the Kremlin, Putin also held a meeting in a command center for the “special military operation” against Ukraine, as the war is officially called in Russia, in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don near Ukraine. There, the President was briefed by Commander Valeri Gerasimov, who is also Chief of the Russian General Staff, and other officers about the course of combat operations in the neighboring country.
On Saturday afternoon, Putin visited the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed in 2014. On the 9th anniversary of the incorporation, state television broadcast images of the Kremlin chief driving a car and opening an art school for children in the port city of Sevastopol.
Russia launched a war of aggression against Ukraine on February 24 last year. Mariupol was besieged by Russian troops and only came under full Russian military control on May 20. The city was largely destroyed during the fighting. Ukraine announced it would liberate Mariupol./cha/DP/nas