A defiant Putin visits shelled city of Mariupol
President Vladimir Putin of Russia made his first trip to territory captured by his forces since they invaded Ukraine more than a year ago, traveling late Saturday to the ravaged city of Mariupol, where Russia staged some of its most brutal attacks of the war.
The visit appeared to be both a gesture of defiance
— it came just a day after an international court issued a warrant for the Russian leader's arrest for war crimes — and a demonstration of Putin's resolve to pursue his defeat of Ukraine before the arrival in Moscow of President Xi Jinping of China, a crucial economic partner.
Mariupol became a symbol of Ukrainian agony when Russian forces began laying waste to it with artillery soon after its forces crossed the border. It grew into a beacon of Ukrainian resistance when the city's last defenders endured a grueling siege at a steel plant.
An adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said Sunday that Putin's visit made clear his lack of remorse. “The criminal always returns to the crime scene,” the adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, wrote on Twitter.
The Kremlin said that Putin had flown by helicopter to the airport in Mariupol and toured several neighborhoods, spoken with residents and inspected reconstruction sites. Russia's bombardment reduced much of the city to rubble, and some rebuilding is now underway. Images released by Russian television showed Putin touring sites in darkness.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, described the visit as a “full-scale working trip” and stressed that many aspects of it were not planned. There was “no motorcade as such,” he said.