Russian President Vladimir Putin visited key points in southern Crimea and eastern Donetsk Oblast, which he unilaterally annexed, one after another, to show off Russia's dominance. In response, the Ukrainian government is pushing back.
The Russian President's Office announced on the 19th that President Putin visited Mariupol, a key point in the Donetsk Region in eastern Ukraine, which was unilaterally annexed in September last year.
It is the first time since the military invasion that Putin has been revealed to have visited areas controlled by Russia, and footage released by the presidential office shows the president driving his car around the city in the dark and receiving an explanation from the deputy prime minister sitting in the passenger seat.
In response, Podlyak, an adviser to the Office of the President of Ukraine, posted on Twitter that "criminals will always return to the scene of the crime," and criticized President Putin for the fact that an arrest warrant was issued for war crimes by the ICC = International Criminal Court.
President Putin also visited southern Crimea, which was unilaterally annexed, on the 18th, and it seems that he is aiming to show off the dominance of the Russian side.
On the other hand, the British Ministry of Defense announced on the 19th that the Russian side unilaterally declared that it would make Melitopol, a city in the occupied southern Zaporozhye region, the capital of the region.
It seems that Russia was aiming to capture the regional capital Zaporozhye, but the Ukrainian army, which is intensifying its counteroffensive, is defending the city.
The British Ministry of Defense suggests that Russia may have decided that it was very unlikely to be able to occupy it and instead declared that it would make Melitopol its provincial capital.