Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a surprise visit to the port city of Mariupol, his first trip to the Russian-occupied territory.
Mariupol is in the Donetsk region, one of four largely Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine that Putin in September moved to annex in an action rejected as illegal by most countries at the United Nations General Assembly.
Putin arrived in Mariupol late Saturday after visiting Crimea, southwest of Mariupol, to mark the ninth anniversary of the Black Sea peninsula’s annexation from Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Sunday.
Russian media reported that Putin travelled by helicopter to Mariupol, where he met with local residents and was briefed on reconstruction efforts by Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin. Russian news reports said Putin drove himself around the city’s “memorial sites,” concert hall, and coastline….