Putin went on a surprise visit to Mariupol, the first since the beginning of the war
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the city of Mariupol in the Donbas region of Ukraine. According to a Kremlin press release, Putin arrived there by helicopter and later drove a car through the streets of the bomb-ravaged city.
The source notes that he talked with locals, visited places of interest and received a report on the reconstruction works in Mariupol. It is the first visit of the Russian leader to this port city in Ukraine, which had been under siege for months and was occupied by the Russian army in May 2022. The leader from Moscow also made a surprise visit to Crimea on Saturday, to mark nine years since the annexation. In his unannounced visit to Sevastopol, Putin attended the inauguration of an arts school in the company of the local governor, Mikhail Razvojayev, according to photos broadcast by the Rossiya 1 television channel. We remind you that on March 18, 2014, Vladimir Putin signed the annexation treaty of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the port city of Sevastopol, after two separate referendums in which Crimean residents would have supported its incorporation into Russia. The polls were considered illegal by the West.
