During his visit, Vladimir Putin spoke with residents, visited places of interest and was presented with a report on the reconstruction works of this devastated city, according to the same source. He also visited new buildings built in recent months by the Russians. According to TF1-LCI journalists who have been there in recent months, almost no building is intact in this city of 500,000 inhabitants before the war.
This surprise visit to Mariupol is above all the first trip of the master of the Kremlin to the Donbass, in a conquered zone, since the start of the Russian offensive on February 24, 2022. According to the Russian presidency, before going to this port city taken by the Russian military last May after several weeks of fighting, Vladimir Putin held a meeting in Rostov, Russia, with Russian military officials, including Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov.
