Vladimir Putin makes surprise trip to Mariupol, his first visit to occupied Donbas in Ukraine

The ICC issued an arrest warrant on Friday towards Putin, accusing him of the war criminal offense of illegally deporting hundreds of young children from Ukraine, a extremely symbolic shift that isolates the Russian chief further more.

While Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has built a selection of excursions to the battlefield to strengthen the morale of his troops and talk tactic, Putin has largely remained inside the Kremlin although managing what Russia phone calls its “distinctive military services procedure” in Ukraine.

Kyiv and its allies say the invasion, now in its 13th thirty day period, is an imperialistic land seize that has killed countless numbers and displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine.

In the Nevsky district of Mariupol, a new household neighbourhood crafted by the Russian army, Putin visited a loved ones in their residence, Russian media documented.

“The head of state also examined the shoreline of Mariupol in the area of the yacht club, the theatre creating, memorable locations of the metropolis,” the Interfax agency cited the Kremlin’s push assistance.

Mariupol is in the Donetsk location, just one of the four areas Putin moved in September to annex. Kyiv and its Western allies condemned the transfer as unlawful. Donetsk, alongside one another with the Luhansk area, comprise most of the Donbas industrialised aspect of Ukraine that has found the biggest fight in Europe for generations.

Russian media claimed on Sunday that Putin also met with the prime commander of his armed forces procedure in Ukraine, together with Chief of the Typical Personnel Valery Gerasimov who is in cost of Moscow’s war in Ukraine.