Vladimir Putin visits occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol, Russian state media reports.
Mariupol, a strategically important city located in the Donetsk Oblast and beside the Sea of Azov, was the site of some of the fiercest fighting in the early part of the war.
The president made what state media described as a "working trip" to the port city, which he annexed in September last year following Russias invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Putin, who arrived in a helicopter, travelled around several districts of the city, making stops and talking to residents, according to Russias TASS state-owned news agency, citing the Kremlin.
Mariupol, a strategically important port city located in the Donetsk Oblast and beside the Sea of Azov, was the site of some of the fiercest fighting in the early part of the war.
Ukrainian forces holed up in the citys Azovstal steelworks for a last-stand defensive, which ended in surrender in May after a three-month siege of the facility by Russia.
Sky News reported in February how Russia had been remodelling the city in its own image since its capture, including turning the ruined steelworks, once one of the biggest metallurgical plants in Europe, into a "tech and eco park".
