Russian official media reported today that President Vladimir Putin made a business trip to Mariupol, a Ukrainian city in the Donetsk region occupied by Moscow’s forces since May last year.
Russia’s Tass news agency quoted the Kremlin as saying that Putin traveled to Mariupol by helicopter. Putin, driving a car, moved around several parts of the city, stopping and talking to residents.
As confirmed by the Russian news agency, Putin met with the top leadership of his military operation in Ukraine, including the chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, who is in charge of Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Tass reported that the meeting took place at the Rostov-on-Don command post in southern Russia.
Yesterday, the Russian President made a surprise visit to Sevastopol, the main port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, on the ninth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian Peninsula in 2014, following the issuance of an arrest warrant against him from the International Criminal Court.
Putin visited an art school in the company of local governor Mikhail Razugayev