![](https://i0.wp.com/wjpa.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Screen-Shot-2023-03-19-at-8.04.13-AM.png?resize=243%2C130&ssl=1)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Kremlin says that Russian President Vladimir Putin has visited the occupied port city of Mariupol, his first trip to Ukrainian territory that Moscow illegally annexed in September. Mariupol became a worldwide symbol of defiance after outgunned and outmanned Ukrainian forces held out in a steel mill there for nearly three months before Moscow finally took control of it in May. Putin traveled to Mariupol late Saturday after visiting Crimea, a short distance southwest of Mariupol, to mark the ninth anniversary of the Black Sea peninsula’s annexation from Ukraine. The visit has come as a show of defiance by the Russian leader two days after a court issued a warrant for his arrest on war crimes charges.