Ukraine war: Putin pays first visit to Russian-occupied Mariupol

Ukraine’s government said the visit was that of a ‘murderer returning to a crime scene’.

Instead of being filmed amid Mariupol’s war-ravaged ruins, Vladimir Putin was pictured in a newly-built children’s playground and met some supposedly adoring residents of the occupied city.

There was no mention of Friday’s arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court for the alleged war crimes of removing children from the annexed area from their families.