Vladimir Putin visited the occupied Mariupol, TASS reports with reference to the Kremlin press service. As the agency notes, this is his first trip to the Donbass.
According to the Kremlin, Putin flew to Mariupol by helicopter and toured the city in a car in the company of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin. Further, as stated, Putin met with local residents, and also "inspected the coastline of Mariupol in the area of the yacht club, the theater building, memorable places in the city."
The Zvezda TV channel published several videos allegedly made during this visit. In one of them, Putin is said to be inspecting the concert hall of the Mariupol Philharmonic. Zvezda, citing Khusnullin's statement, reports that a decision has been made to preserve the historical appearance of Mariupol during restoration work.
Updated: Zvezda published another video showing Putin talking to a small group of people in the courtyard of a multi-storey residential building. It is alleged that these are residents of Mariupol. People in the video say that they received apartments in this building and thank Putin.
