Putin Heckled While Visiting Mariupol: 'It's All for Show'
© -/POOL/AFP/Getty Images
In this grab taken from video released by Russian broadcaster VGTRK as POOL on March 19, 2023, shows Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) speaking with apartment block residents as he visits the Ukrainian city of Mariupol late March 18, 2023. Putin made a surprise trip to Mariupol, the Kremlin said, his first visit to territory captured from Ukraine since the start of Moscow's offensive.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was filmed getting heckled while on an unannounced visit to occupied Mariupol on Sunday.
In an official video released by the Kremlin of Putin's visit to the Ukrainian port city over the weekend, a resident appears to scream at the Russian president as he speaks to a crowd, prompting his security to look for the source.
Putin's first visit to the war-ravaged occupied city since the start of his full-scale invasion last February came on the heels of a decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue him with an arrest warrant for war crimes.
The ICC cited the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children. It marked the first time an arrest warrant has been issued against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.
According to the Kremlin, Putin visited Mariupol on the Sea of Azov in southern Donetsk province from Saturday evening to the early hours of Sunday. Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov has said that the trip was "spontaneous".
The 27-minute long video published by the Kremlin showed Putin having a conversation with residents of the Nevsky district in Mariupol. According to local news outlets, he was talking with recipients of new housing that replaced homes that were destroyed as a result of the war.
He asked one person if they liked it in Nevsky, to which the individual replied: "Very much. It's a little piece of heaven we have here."
Someone appeared to shout "It's all not true! It's all for show!" in the background of their conversation, which sparked a reaction from his security. It wasn't clear from the video whether the heckler was identified.
The Kremlin also published a press release alongside the video, saying that Putin flew to Mariupol by helicopter and traveled around several districts of the city by car, making stops along the way.
"During the trip, the President was accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, who reported on the progress of construction and restoration work in the city and its environs," the release said.
It marked Putin's first trip to the region since he launched an invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and followed an appearance in Crimea—the Black Sea peninsula that he illegally annexed in 2014 from Ukraine.
"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 advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter, responding to news of the visit.
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Newsweek has contacted Russia's foreign ministry by email for comment.
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