Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has visited the war-torn southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday, a year after its forces besieged the city.
His visit comes as Russian forces are closing in on Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine that has become the scene of Russia’s longest-running intervention battle in Ukraine.
The ministry said Shoigu, one of the top officials visiting eastern Ukraine, visited the devastated port city to oversee the reconstruction efforts.
Shoigu ” inspected work carried out by .. … The Ministry of Defense will restore infrastructure in Donbas,” the ministry said, without specifying the date of the visit to the residential buildings.
Russia launched a campaign against Mariupol early in its campaign last year, destroying the Azovstal steel mill, the last bastion of Ukrainian forces in the city.
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny reports Defense Ministry officials personally benefited from the Mariupol.
The ministry’s announcement came a day after Shoigu reportedly met with Russian soldiers stationed at a “command post” in eastern Ukraine.
Its founder, Kremlin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, regularly criticizes the Defense Ministry in allegedly head-on social media videos.
Analysts say that although Bakhmut was one of the bloodiest battles of the war, any Russian capture of a salt-mining town would give Moscow a smaller strategic advantage than in Donbas.
