- Sputnik Africa, 1920, 10.04.2023
Russia's Special Operation in Ukraine
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine, aiming to liberate and defend the inhabitants of the Donbass region, where people have been suffering from a blockade and regular attacks by the Kiev regime's forces since 2014.

Visit of Chinese Citizens to Mariupol Angers Ukraine, Which Promises Travel Ban

© Sputnik . Konstantin Mikhalchevsky / Go to the mediabankChinese opera singer Wang Fang. File photo
Chinese opera singer Wang Fang. File photo - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 08.09.2023
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Mariupol is a city located on the northern coast of the Sea of Azov. The city was a center of hostilities between Moscow and Kiev until Russian forces liberated it on April 21, 2022.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry will ban Chinese opera singer Wang Fang and bloggers from the PRC who visited Mariupol from entering the country, Kiev spokesman Oleh Nikolenko has announced.
In a statement on Friday, he called Wang’s performance of the Soviet song “Katyusha” in a damaged theater in Mariupol “an example of complete moral degradation.” Nikolenko added that the Chinese delegation violated Ukrainian legislation, which regulates the crossing of the state border by foreigners.
“Kiev respects the territorial integrity of China and expects Beijing to explain the purpose of the Chinese residents' stay in Mariupol, as well as the ways they used to enter” the city, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

The remarks come as Chinese blogger Xu Jijun told Sputnik about his and his colleague's visit to hostility-hit Mariupol, where he said they had seen the suffering locals went through.

“We saw houses of ordinary people destroyed by shells, with holes in their living rooms. We have a lot of empathy and sympathy for those people,” he added.

Xu underscored that they had come to Mariupol to not enjoy the beauty, but to feel the atmosphere in which people now live in Russia.” He noted that since the beginning of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, the Chinese have had the opportunity to keep an eye on developments there.

Xu spoke after the Chinese bloggers’ and Wang’s meeting with the acting head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, in Mariupol as well as with the head of Crimea Sergey Aksenov, earlier this week.
Mariupol, a city located on the northern coast of the Sea of Azov, was a hotbed of hostilities between Moscow and Kiev until it was liberated by Russian forces on April 21, 2022. Since, Russia has been clearing the city's port of mines and restoring civilian infrastructure.
A fire rages in the building of the Donetsk National University of Economics and Trade as a result of shelling by cluster shells in the course of Russia's military operation in Ukraine, in Donetsk, Donetsk People's Republic, Russia, on August 5, 2023. - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 01.09.2023
Russia's Special Operation in Ukraine
Ukrainian Forces Fire Cluster Bombs & Incendiary Rockets at Donetsk, Local Authorities Say
Last March, Ukraine claimed that a Russian airstrike leveled the Mariupol Drama Theater, which Ukrainians allegedly used as a bomb shelter. The allegations were rejected by the Russian Defense Ministry. The head of the investigative department of the DPR Prosecutor General's Office, Alexei Kutsurubenko, told Sputnik that Kiev's claims were "a lie and a fake" because the explosion was triggered from inside. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Mariupol Drama Theater collapsed on March 16, 2022, after an explosion caused by nationalists from the Azov Battalion*.
*terrorist organization banned in Russia
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