Putin’s Mariupol visit is meant to signal to Russian people that the president is still in charge

Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of ​​Azov, is located in Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast and has been under direct Russian control since May 2022.

Russian attacks on Mariupol began on February 24, 2022 – the first day of the invasion. The city was subject to a few wars worst torture,

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In March, a air strike Vandalized the maternity and child hospital of the city. Russian officials claimed that the hospital was a proper military target, based on their unproven claim that Ukrainian military targets were at the site and that all patients and medical staff had been released.

But footage circulating on social media showed pregnant mothers being pulled out of a dilapidated building amid burnt cars and rubble.

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Among the injured was a pregnant woman who was seen being carried away on a stretcher. Neither she nor her baby could be saved, a surgeon who treated her later confirmed. This picture shocked the whole world.

Also in March, Russia bombed a theater Where hundreds of people took refuge in Mariupol. The word “children” was chanted on both sides of the theater before the bombing.

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Did 450,000 people According to Mariupol mayor Vadim Boychenko, who lived in the city before the war, a third had already left by mid-April.

Some of those who stayed took refuge at the Azovstal Steel Plant. For Ukrainians, Azovstal became a mighty symbol of resistancesheltering approximately 2,600 soldiers and civilians, while the fort-like facility was pummeled by Russian bombardment for weeks.

For Moscow, the sprawling site was a frustration, the last stubborn holdout in a city its forces had taken control of weeks earlier.

“Close the industrial site so that not a single fly escapes,” Putin said, his order broadcast on state-run television.

Yuri Rezhenkov, CEO of Metinvest Holding, the plant’s owner, told CNN why Putin wanted to take over Azovstal so badly.

“I don’t think it’s the plant they want. I think it’s about the symbolism that they wanted to conquer Mariupol. They never expected Mariupol to protest,” Ryzenkov said.

Azovstal finally fell in late May, after a evacuation operation Hundreds of Ukrainians were saved from the plant.