After Crimea, Putin went to Mariupol at night, “like a thief”, according to the people of Kiev

This is his first trip to the Ukrainian port city, which was besieged by Russian forces for months before it fell in May 2022. country, the Kremlin said this Sunday following the issuance of an international warrant for the arrest of the Russian president.

The leader went to Mariupol by helicopter and toured the city by car, the Kremlin press service reported, citing Russian news agencies. He spoke with residents, visited sights and received a report on the reconstruction of this ruined city, according to the same source.

The Russian president would have decided at the last moment to go to Mariupol, the Kremlin assured this Sunday, insisting on the “spontaneous” nature of his trip. “It was all very spontaneous,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “His trips to the city were also not planned,” as were visits to the local musical theater and meeting with residents of the port city, he said.

Ukrainian authorities in Mariupol, a port city under Russian control since May 2022, condemned the visit. “International criminal Putin visited the occupied city of Mariupol ‘at night’, probably not to see the city that he killed during the day release “Wrote the city council in his Telegram account, referring to an international warrant for his arrest. The visit, organized at night, “like a thief,” also expressed regret to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

First visit to Crimea since 2021

This unexpected visit to Mariupol is, first of all, the first trip by the owner of the Kremlin to the Donbass, to the conquered zone, since the start of the Russian offensive on February 24, 2022, which brought Moscow a series of tough international sanctions. Prior to his trip to Mariupol, Putin also held a meeting in Rostov, Russia, with the Russian military, including General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov, according to the Kremlin.

Earlier, he traveled to Crimea on Saturday for the 9th anniversary of the annexation of this Ukrainian peninsula by Russia, which also came under international sanctions for this reason. This was his first visit to Crimea since 2021.

Since Friday, Vladimir Putin has been under an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which charges him with the war crime of “illegal deportation” of Ukrainian children.

The court, which sits in The Hague, has also tried to test whether the bombing and siege of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine could constitute a crime against humanity. She concluded that she lacked the elements for such a conclusion, since she did not have access to the Donetsk region, where Mariupol is located.

The Kremlin has declared “invalid” the arrest warrant of the ICC, whose jurisdiction Moscow does not recognize. More than 16,000 Ukrainian children were deported to Russia after the February 24, 2022 invasion, according to Kiev, and many of them were placed in institutions and foster families.

“Our president knows how to surprise”

Arriving in Sevastopol, the home port of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, Vladimir Putin, accompanied by local governor Mikhail Razvoyaev, accompanied by local governor Mikhail Razvoyaev, attended the opening ceremony of a children’s art school on Saturday. TV channel Russia-1.

The city is located just 240 kilometers from Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine recaptured by the Kiev army in November after the withdrawal of Russian troops, and this was also the first move by Vladimir Putin to have been made so close from the front. line.

“Our President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin knows how to surprise. In a good sense of the word, ”Mikhail Razvozhaev wrote on Telegram. “But Vladimir Vladimirovich came personally. Myself. Driving. Because on such a historic day as today, he is always with Sevastopol and its residents,” the governor said. Russia annexed Crimea on March 18, 2014 following a referendum that was not recognized by Kiev and the international community.

“New Era” with China

While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed in January that he intends to take back Crimea — “our land” — in arms, Moscow continues to hammer in that “Crimea is Russian,” refusing to make it the subject of possible peace talks. An international arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin was issued on the day Moscow and Beijing announced Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia next week, which was supposed to usher in a “new era” in relations between the two allies.

The visit will take place from March 20 to 22, just over a year after the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, which forced the Kremlin to refocus on China amid tensions with the West, which supports “Ukraine”. Last month, China tried to establish itself as a mediator by issuing a document calling on Moscow and Kyiv to hold peace talks.