Mariupol, in the Ukrainian province of Donetsk on the shores of the Sea of Azov, is a symbol of the most serious armed conflict experienced by Europe since the Second World War. Both by Russia, which has controlled it since May, and by Ukraine, which considers it occupied territory. That is why it was one of the stops made by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, on his short tour this weekend, coinciding with the ninth anniversary of the annexation of Crimea. And that is why the Government of Kyiv reacted yesterday by denouncing Putin's "cynicism" and recalling that only three days ago the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against him.
It is the first visit by the head of the Kremlin to an area conquered by Russian troops since he ordered the offensive against Ukraine in February 2022. According to his press service, he arrived by helicopter on Saturday night, after also visit Sevastopol, in Crimea, by surprise.
During his short stay he toured several neighborhoods of the devastated city in a car that he drove himself. Last year, Mariúpol was the scene of fierce fighting during weeks of siege and bombardment to which it was subjected by Russian troops. Since then, it has been synonymous with death and destruction.
The city finally fell in May 2022, after a tenacious resistance by Ukrainian soldiers entrenched alongside civilians at the Azovstal steelworks.
He was accompanied by Marat Khusnulin, Russian Deputy Prime Minister, who informed him of the progress of the work. In images distributed by Russian state television, Khusnulin says that “the center of the city has been severely damaged. We want to finish (the reconstruction) at the end of the year, at least the part of the facade. The center is very beautiful."
Another scene shows Putin talking to residents of the city who have been rehoused in new homes built by Russian military builders. "Do you live here? Do they like it?” he asks. "A lot. Here we now have a piece of heaven", answers a woman, who puts her hands together as a sign of gratitude, before adding: "We pray for you".
The Ukrainian authorities criticized the Russian leader's visit yesterday. His Ministry of Defense assured that Putin made his visit at night "as if he were a thief".
"Criminals always return to the scene of the crime... The killer of thousands of Mariúpol families came to admire the ruins and their graves. Cynicism and lack of remorse," Mikhaïlo Podoliak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, wrote on Twitter.
The Ukrainian municipal council of Mariúpol, a refugee in territory controlled by Kyiv, emphasized that an "international criminal" visited "the occupied city". He was referring to the arrest warrant issued Friday by the International Criminal Court against Putin as "allegedly responsible" for the illegal deportation of hundreds of children from Ukraine.
Russia has pointed out that that decision is "legally void", as it is not a signatory country of the Rome Statute, the court's founding norm. Dmitri Peskov, Putin's spokesman, described the court's decision as "scandalous and unacceptable".
