• Direct Last minute of the war in Ukraine
  • Russia in Ukraine An extensive catalogue of war crimes
  • Victims The Mariupol surgeon: "We operate under the pumps until the last patient"

Vladimir Putin often refers to Ukrainian Donbas as "our people." Today he has finally seen them in person. The president has walked this Saturday for his conquests for the first time since he began stealing territory from Ukraine in 2014. During the night, amid heavy security, the Russian leader briefly visited Mariupol, a city devastated last year by the advance of his army. It's the closest Putin has come to the front lines since the year-long war began.

Putin flew by helicopter to Mariupol for "a working trip," Russian news agencies reported, citing the Kremlin. He toured several districts of the city and talked to some locals who seemed carefully chosen. Some invited him to look out into their new homes.

A neighbor in a beret came out to meet him. Smiling, he summarized his life that sounded like shrapnel:

-I was born 15 days after you, I am also 70 years old. But I've been left with nothing.

Smiling, Putin didn't say a word. The city is the metaphor for the destruction of a war that was to be short and clean. The siege of the city damaged or destroyed 2,500 apartment blocks. 50% of private homes were bombed, according to a municipal count. It will take between 7 and 10 years to restore the city to its original state. More than 100 demolitions have been carried out across Mariupol, according to the Conflict Observatory, a U.S. nongovernmental organization. The city was virtually demolished in a matter of weeks.

Mariupol fell into Russian hands in May last year after one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the war. It was Russia's first major victory after failing in its attempt to seize Kiev. From that moment he focused on southeastern Ukraine, where he would have to carry out the painful withdrawal from Zaporizhia. Today he is looking for gradual chances of victory after entering the east side of Bajmut, in the northern part of Donbas.

Across eastern Ukraine, Russian speakers he said he was trying to protect have had the most difficult year of their lives. Moscow has tried to alleviate the suffering caused in Mariupol by building new housing estates.

Putin's visit is about promoting that friendly face of Russia: the invader who destroys but then builds. In Mariupol's Nevsky district, surrounded by newly finished flats visibly better than ordinary Russian housing, Putin visited a family at their home. This new residential neighborhood has been built by the Russian army. The first people moved in last September.

Russia imposes the idea that it is in Mariupol to stay. Many of the city's Ukrainian street names are reverting to the Soviets, and Peace Avenue, which runs through Mariupol, is renamed Lenin Avenue.

Russian media released videos showing the Russian leader driving a car at night through the city and walking towards the Philharmonic, restored in just three months.

Mariupol had a population of half a million people before the war and housed the Azovstal steel plant, one of the largest in Europe. Russia destroyed it to hunt down alleged Nazi fighters who it then exchanged for Russian prisoners.

Russian media and politicians frequently refer to last year's destruction as if it were a meteorological phenomenon. "The city center has been badly damaged," Khusnullin said. "We want to finish [rebuilding] the center by the end of the year, at least the part of the façade. The center is very beautiful."

A day earlier, Putin went on a surprise visit to Sevastopol in annexed Crimea. His journey comes at a time when the International Tribunal in The Hague tightens the siege with an international arrest warrant against him for the alleged abduction of Ukrainian children.

Russian media reported Sunday that Putin also met with the top commander of his military operation in Ukraine, including Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, who is in charge of the Russian front in Ukraine.

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