According to official information, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has visited the Ukrainian port of Mariupol, which was destroyed when it was captured by Moscow troops in spring 2022. Shoigu checked the work of the construction brigades in Mariupol during his inspection tour of the Donbass, the Defense Ministry announced on its Telegram channel on Monday.
On the video recordings, the 67-year-old can be seen in a newly built hospital and in front of the civil defense building. The ministry also announced that he had received reports on the laying of a water pipeline from the Rostov region in southern Russia to the Donetsk region. Before his tenure as defense minister in 2012, Shoigu headed Russia’s civil defense for 18 years.
It is Shoigu’s second visit within a few days to the Ukrainian region of Donetsk, which was partially annexed by Russian troops, after he is said to have visited the front there at the weekend. The pictures are supposed to demonstrate the activity and care of the Russian leadership. Criticism has increased recently that those responsible in Moscow are only waging the war from their cabinets and are not paying attention to the concerns of the soldiers and the local population, which Russia, according to its own understanding, had liberated.