Only a day after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest, Russian President Vladimir Putin went to Mariupol, which is one of the most war-damaged cities in Ukraine, writes Reuters.
Russian state television showed Putin’s «excursion» on the evening of Saturday, the 18th of March, when he met with displaced residents and was informed about reconstruction works. Mariupol became synonymous with destruction and death to the world last spring when the Russian army destroyed it and finally occupied it in May.
Hundreds of people were killed in Russian airstrikes on the Mariupol Drama Theater, where families with children had sought refuge.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
has described the bombing of the Mariupol maternity hospital as a war crime.
Moscow, despite clear evidence, continues to deny that it deliberately endangered civilians.
Putin’s visit is surrounded by a challenging atmosphere, considering that the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant on Friday, the 17th of March, accusing the Russian president of illegally deporting hundreds of Ukrainian children. It is considered a war crime and a form of genocide. Putin has not publicly commented on the accusations, while his representative has indicated that legally the arrest warrant has no force, and Russia considers the decisions of the International Criminal Court to be unheard of and unacceptable.
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said that Putin’s arrival in Mariupol is the return of a criminal to the scene of a crime: «As the civilized world announces the arrest of the «war director» in case of crossing its borders,
the murderer of thousands of Mariupol families came to admire the ruins of the city and graves. Cynicism and lack of remorse.»
This was the first time since the beginning of the war that Putin visited the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine. While Zelensky has visited the front several times to boost the morale of his soldiers and discuss strategy, Putin spends most of his time in the Kremlin.
Putin’s visit to Mariupol took place in the dark, and he was accompanied by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, who gave detailed information about the works in the city. He informed that residents are actively returning to the city. Before the war, Mariupol had a population of about half a million and was home to Europe’s largest steel processing plant.