Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has arrived in the Black Sea Peninsula for an unannounced visit to mark the ninth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea. “Our President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin knows how to surprise,” Moscow-appointed governor of the port city of Sevastopol, Mikhail Rasvozhayev, wrote on his Telegram channel on Saturday. State television broadcast images of the Kremlin chief opening an art school for children in Sevastopol.
Putin also visited a children’s holiday camp, which is located at the excavation site of the ancient city of Chersonesus in what is now Sevastopol, and is intended to bring history closer to children.
It is the Russian President’s first visit to Crimea on the anniversary of the annexation since 2020. At that time he presented medals to the construction workers of the Crimea Bridge, which leads from the Russian mainland to the annexed peninsula. In 2021 and 2022, Putin celebrated the celebrations in Moscow with a major concert.
According to media reports, Putin was last in Crimea in July 2020. Since the start of the war of aggression he ordered against Ukraine, the Russian president has generally avoided areas close to the front. At the end of 2022, he tested the navigability of the Crimean Bridge, which had been badly damaged by an attack in the fall.
Telegram-Channel Raswoschajew (Russ.)
