Key Points
- Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Mariupol over the weekend has been criticised by Ukraine officials.
- Mr Putin's spokesperson said the late-night visit was spontaneous following his trip to Crimea.
- It comes as Chinese President Xi Jinping prepares his controversial trip to Russia to meet with Mr Putin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Mariupol on Sunday unleashed an angry reaction from Ukraine, with a presidential aide attacking him for his "cynicism" and "lack of remorse".
It is his first visit to territory captured from Ukraine since the start of Moscow's invasion.
"The criminal always returns to the crime scene ... the murderer of thousands of Mariupol families came to admire the ruins of the city and [its] graves. Cynicism and lack of remorse," Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak said on Twitter.
Ukraine's defence ministry also said on Twitter that Mr Putin visited the city at night "as befits a thief".
"He watched the 'rebuilding of the city' ... at night. Probably in order not to see the city, killed by his 'liberation', in the light of day," the exiled Mariupol city council said on its Telegram account.
Just hours after Mr Putin visited Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of the peninsula's annexation, a video distributed by the Kremlin showed him landing by helicopter in Mariupol, the port city that Moscow captured after a long siege last spring.
Mr Putin and his deputy, Marat Khusnullin, discuss a newly built neighbourhood during their visit to Mariupol in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region. Source: AAP / AP
"We're praying for you," a resident told Mr Putin, referring to the city as "a little piece of paradise", according to images broadcast by Russian state TV, showing the visit took place at night.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters the visit was "spontaneous", adding that Mr Putin's movements around the city and his meeting with locals were not planned.
Mr Putin's visit to Mariupol was described as "spontaneous", according to the Kremlin. Source: AAP / Russian President Press Service
It was Mr Putin's first trip to the eastern Donbas region . It comes almost a year after Moscow announced the capture of Mariupol after a campaign that saw the destruction of the works, the last holdout of Ukrainian forces in the strategic port city.
The visit also comes ahead of a , widely seen as a diplomatic coup for Mr Putin.
Beijing, a strategic ally of Moscow, has touted the trip as a "visit for peace" as it seeks to play mediator in the Ukraine conflict.
Mr Putin also welcomed China's willingness to play a "constructive role" in ending the conflict in Ukraine, saying Sino-Russian relations were "at the highest point" in history.
His Chinese counterpart's trip is aimed at delivering a breakthrough in the war as Beijing seeks to position itself as a peacemaker.
The quality of ties between Moscow and Beijing is "higher than the political and military unions of the Cold War era", Mr Putin said in an article written for a Chinese newspaper and published by the Kremlin on the eve of Mr Xi's visit.
But Western leaders have repeatedly criticised Beijing for failing to condemn Russia's offensive, accusing it of providing Moscow with diplomatic cover for its campaign.
ICC warrant 'void'
The weekend visits came after the International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, .
Kyiv says more than 16,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia since the start of the conflict, many of them placed in institutions and foster homes.
Mr Putin is now liable for arrest if he set foot in any of the court's more than 120 member states.
The 70-year-old Russian leader has not commented publicly on the warrant but the Kremlin dismissed its validity as "void" since Russia did not recognise the ICC's jurisdiction.
