Russian president Putin visits occupied city of Mariupol

Russian President Vladimir Putin with Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin (left), at the Mariupol theater Sunday. Pic/AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited the port city of Mariupol, Russian state news agencies reported on Sunday morning, in what would mark his first trip to Ukrainian territory that Moscow illegally annexed in September. Mariupol became a worldwide symbol of defiance after outgunned and outmanned Ukrainian forces held out in a steel mill there for nearly three months before Moscow finally took control of it in May.

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Putin arrived in Mariupol by helicopter and then drove himself around the city’s “memorial sites,” concert hall and coastline, Russian news reports said, without specifying exactly when the visit took place. They said Putin also met local residents in the city’s Nevskyi district. On Saturday, Putin traveled to Crimea, a short distance southwest of Mariupol, to mark the ninth anniversary of the Black Sea peninsula’s annexation from Ukraine.

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