Vladimir Putin visited Mariupol, a Ukrainian city devastated by bombardments, his first visit to a conquered zone since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, the Kremlin reported on Sunday, after the issuance of an arrest warrant. international against the Russian President.
He flew to Mariupol by helicopter and toured the city, driving a car, the Kremlin press service said on Sunday.
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 pray for you,” Mr. Putin assured one of the residents, 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.
This is his first trip to this Ukrainian port city besieged for months by Russian forces before it fell 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.
According to the Kremlin, Mr 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 state -Major 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.
In addition, Vladimir Putin has been targeted since Friday by an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which accuses him of a war crime of “illegal deportation” of Ukrainian children.
The Court, which sits in The Hague, also tried to verify whether the bombing and siege of Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine, could constitute a crime against humanity. She concluded that she lacked elements to reach such a conclusion, having not had access to the Donetsk region, where Mariupol is located.
The Kremlin has ruled “null and void” the arrest warrant of the ICC, which Moscow does not recognize the jurisdiction.
“Like a thief”
The Ukrainian authorities strongly denounced, on Sunday, the visit of Mr. Putin, whom they described as an “international criminal”. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense notably indicated on Twitter that the Russian president went to Mariupol “like a thief”, in the middle of the night.
“As if he were a thief, Putin visited the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, taking shelter behind the night, underlines the ministry. First, it’s safer. And also, the night allows him to emphasize what he wants to show, and keeps the city that his army totally destroyed and its few surviving inhabitants safe from prying eyes”.
A Ukrainian presidential adviser, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, meanwhile denounced Vladimir Putin’s “cynicism” and “lack of remorse”. “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 lack of remorse,” he wrote on Twitter.
Surprise
On Saturday, in Sevastopol, home port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, Mr. Putin had notably attended the inauguration ceremony of a school of arts for children in the company of the local governor, Mikhail Razvojayev, according to the images broadcast by the public television channel Rossia-1.
This city is located only about 240 km from Kherson, a southern Ukrainian city taken over by the kyiv army in November after the withdrawal of Russian forces.
“Our President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin knows how to surprise. In the good sense of the word, ”wrote on Telegram Mr. Razvojayev.
“But Vladimir Vladimirovich came in person. Himself. Driving. Because on a historic day like today, he is always with Sevastopol and its people,” said Mikhail Razvojayev.
Russia annexed Crimea on March 18, 2014, following a referendum not recognized by kyiv and the international community.
“New era” with China
If Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky affirmed in January that he intended to take back Crimea – “our land” – by arms, Moscow continues to hammer home that “Crimea is Russian”, refusing to make it the object of possible peace negotiations.
The international arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin was issued the day Moscow and Beijing unveiled the visit from Monday of Chinese leader Xi Jinping to Russia, supposed to open a “new era” in relations between two allies.
This visit, scheduled until Wednesday, comes just over a year after the launch of the Russian offensive in Ukraine which led the Kremlin to reorient itself towards China, against a backdrop of tensions with the West which supports the ‘Ukraine
With Duty