CREATING A STORYSTORY DEVELOPMENT,
Vladimir Putin, who flew to Mariupol by helicopter, drove around the city by car and stopped to talk to residents, the TASS agency said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a working trip to Mariupol, a Ukrainian city in the Donetsk region that has been occupied by Moscow forces since May of last year.
Putin flew to Mariupol by helicopter, the TASS agency reported on Sunday, citing the Kremlin.
Putin drove a car and traveled through several districts of the city, stopping and talking to residents, the agency said.
Reports of the visit to Mariupol came a day after the Russian leader traveled to the Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of the annexation of the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine. Russian state TV showed him visiting the Black Sea port city of Sevastopol on Saturday, accompanied by the Moscow-appointed local governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 following a referendum not recognized by Kyiv and the international community.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has demanded that Russia withdraw from the peninsula as well as the areas it has occupied since last year.