Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited Mariupol, a Ukrainian city in the Donetsk region that has been occupied by Moscow’s forces since May last year.
Putin flew to Mariupol in a helicopter and traveled through several parts of the city, making stops and speaking to local residents, the TASS agency reported on Sunday, citing the Kremlin.
Reports of the visit to Mariupol came a day after the Russian leader traveled to Crimea from Ukraine to mark the ninth anniversary of the annexation of the Black Sea Peninsula. Russian state television showed him on Saturday visiting the Black Sea port city of Sevastopol, accompanied by Moscow-appointed governor Mikhail Razvozhayev.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 after a referendum that was not recognized by Kyiv and the international community.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on Russia to withdraw from the peninsula and the areas occupied since last year.
Putin’s visit to Mariupol also comes after the International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Friday it had issued an arrest warrant for him and accused him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine.
Putin has not publicly commented on the arrest warrant. The Kremlin spokesman called it “null and void” and said Russia finds the very issues raised by the ICC “outrageous and unacceptable”.