Putin on a show of farce

Exiled mayor accuses president of  'returning to the scene of the crime'

- AMY-CLARE MARTIN

VLADIMIR Putin reportedly visited the Russian-captured city of Mariupol yesterday in his first trip to Ukraine since his invasion.

It comes days after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader accusing him of war crimes.

Russian state news agencies claimed Putin had been in the port city after footage emerged of him driving around with his deputy prime minister Marat Khusnullin.

Putin arrived in a helicopter and then drove himself around the city's "memorial sites", concert hall and coastline, the Russian reports said.