Putin makes first trip to Russian-occupied Mariupol

President Vladimir Putin made a surprise weekend visit to the war-torn port of Mariupol, state media reported, the Kremlin leader’s first trip to Russian-held territory in Ukraine’s Donbas region since the conflict began.

The visit comes after Putin went to Crimea on an unannounced visit to mark the ninth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine, and just two days after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader.

Putin has not commented publicly on the ICC warrant, but his trip to Russian-claimed Ukrainian territory was seen by some observers as an act of defiance.

Mariupol fell in May after one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the war, marking Russia’s first major victory after failing to capture Kyiv and focusing instead on southeastern Ukraine.

The closest Putin has been to the front line

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said Russia’s initial bombing of a maternity hospital was a war crime.

Putin flew by helicopter to Mariupol for a “working trip,” Russian news agencies reported, citing the Kremlin. He went around several districts of the city, stopping and talking to the residents.

It is the closest Putin has come to the front lines since the war began a year ago.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant on Friday against Putin, charging him with war crimes for illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine, a symbolic move that further isolates the Russian leader.

While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made several trips to the battlefield to boost the morale of his troops and talk strategy, Putin has largely remained in the Kremlin as he conducts what Russia calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Kyiv and its allies say the invasion, now in its 13th month, is an imperialistic land grab that has killed thousands and displaced millions in Ukraine.

The city was half a million strong before the war

In Mariupol’s Nevsky district, Putin visited a family at home, Russian media reported. A new residential neighborhood has been built by the Russian military with the first people moving in last September.

Citizens have “actively” returned, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, who accompanied Putin, was quoted by Russian agencies.

Mariupol had a pre-war population of half a million people and was home to the Azovstal steel plant, one of the largest steel plants in Europe.

“The city center has been badly damaged,” Khusnullin said. “We want to finish [reconstruction] from the center at the end of the year, most of the facade. The center is great.”

Russian media released a video showing the Russian leader driving a car at night through a built-up area as well as walking to what the media called the philharmonic, restored only three months later.

There was also no immediate reaction to the visit from Kyiv.

Mariupol is in the Donetsk region, one of the four regions that Putin moved in September to annex. Kyiv and its Western allies condemned the move as illegal. Donetsk, along with the Luhansk region, comprises a large part of Ukraine’s Donbas industrial region which has seen Europe’s biggest war for generations.

Russian media reported on Sunday that Putin also met with top commanders of military operations in Ukraine, including Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov, who is responsible for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.