Vladimir Putin has made his first visit to occupied Ukrainian territory since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
The Russian President toured the city of Mariupol in the southeast of the country.
He made what state media described as a "working trip" to the port city in Donetsk, which was annexed in September last year after Russia's invasion.
Mr Putin, who arrived in a helicopter, travelled around several districts of the city, making stops and talking to residents, according to the state-owned TASS news agency, which cited the Kremlin.
A video posted on state media showed the president driving around the city and visiting a concert hall that was allegedly used by Russia to keep prisoners of war in cages during 'show trials' last year.
Arrest warrant
The Russian leader also visited Crimea to mark the 9th anniversary of the Black Sea peninsula's annexation from Ukraine - just days after a warrant for his arrest was issued by the International Criminal Court over alleged war crimes.
Mr Putin has not commented publicly on the ICC arrest warrant, but his spokesman called it "null and void" on Friday.
The court has said he is responsible for the abduction of hundreds of Ukrainian children since Russia's full invasion of the country began in February last year.
Russia does not recognise the jurisdiction of the court, which is based in The Hague.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands in July 2017. Picture by: Roman Yanushevsky / Alamy Stock PhotoIt also does not extradite its citizens to face the court, meaning Mr Putin may not face trial there.
However any of the 123 countries who are are parties to the Rome Statute of the ICC, including Ireland, would be obliged to arrest him if he set foot on their soil.
This is complicated by the fact that the ICC does not have its own police force, and that most governments abide by an international legal principle that heads of state have legal immunity from other courts.
US President Joe Biden has said President Putin "clearly committed war crimes."
"He's clearly committed war crimes," Mr Biden said on St Patrick's Day.
"I think it's justified [the warrant]. But the question is - it's not recognised internationally by us either. But I think it makes a very strong point."
Annexed territories
Mr Putin annexed the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia in September, signing a law that absorbed them into Russia after so-called referenda rejected as a sham by Ukraine and the West.
Most of the world considers Russia's annexations to be illegal, while Ukraine has said it will fight to get the regions back.
Mariupol, a strategically important port city on the Sea of Azov, was the site of some of the fiercest fighting in the early part of the war.
Smoke rises from the Azovstal steelworks under Russian bombardment in mid-April 2022.Picture by: Mariupol City CouncilUkrainian forces holed up in the city's Azovstal steelworks for a last-stand defensive, which ended in surrender in May after a three-month siege of the facility by Russia.
More than 2,500 buildings sustained damage in the siege of Mariupol - nearly half of everything that stood in the city.
Russia has 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'.
Mr Putin also met the top command of his military operation in Ukraine, including Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, according to Russian media.
Reporting by: IRN
