KEY POINTS
- President Vladimir Putin has made a surprise visit to Russian-occupied Mariupol in Ukraine's Donbas region.
- Mariupol was Russia's first major victory after Mr Putin launched his full-scale invasion in February last year.
- The Russian president travelled around several districts of the city, making stops and talking to residents.
President Vladimir Putin has made a surprise visit to Mariupol, Russian state media reported, in what would be the Kremlin leader's first trip to the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine's Donbas region since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The visit came after Mr Putin travelled to Crimea on Saturday in 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.
Mariupol, which fell to Russia in May after one of the war's longest and bloodiest battles, was Russia's first major victory after it failed to seize Kyiv and focused instead on southeastern Ukraine.
Mr Putin flew by helicopter to Mariupol, Russian news agencies reported, citing the Kremlin.
It is the closest to the front lines Mr Putin has been during since he launched his all-out war on Ukraine just over a year ago.
Driving a car, Mr Putin travelled around several districts of the city, making stops and talking to residents.
Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, was reduced to a smouldering shell after weeks of fighting.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation and Europe (OSCE) said Russia's early bombing of a maternity hospital in Mariupol was a war crime.
The ICC on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Mr Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine, a highly symbolic move that further isolates the Russian leader.
While Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made a number of trips to the battlefield to boost the morale of his troops and talk strategy, Mr Putin has largely remained inside the Kremlin while running what Russia calls its "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 of people in Ukraine.
In the Nevsky district of Mariupol, a new residential neighbourhood built by the Russian military, Mr Putin visited a family in their home, Russian media reported.
"The head of state also examined the coastline of Mariupol in the area of the yacht club, the theatre building, memorable places of the city," the Interfax agency said, citing the Kremlin's press service.
Kyiv and its Western allies condemned the move as illegal.
Donetsk, together with the Luhansk region, comprise most of the Donbas industrialised part of Ukraine that has seen the biggest battle in Europe for generations.
Russian media reported on Sunday that Mr Putin also met with the top commander of his military operation in Ukraine, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
