Mariupol - Russian President Vladimir Putin's surprise visit to Mariupol, a Ukrainian city currently under Russian occupation, has been seen by some as a bold move in response to the International Criminal Court's recent accusation of war crimes against him.

Russian state television showed extended footage of Putin being shown around the city on Saturday night, meeting rehoused residents and being briefed on reconstruction efforts by Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin. Putin's trip to Mariupol took place in darkness.

State media said he visited a new residential neighbourhood that had been built by Russian military with the first people moving in last September.

"Do you live here? Do you like it?" Putin was shown asking residents.

"Very much. It's a little piece of heaven that we have here now," a woman replied, clasping her hands and thanking Putin for "the victory".

Putin's visit to Mariupol is significant, a city known around the world as a byword for death and destruction as much of it was reduced to ruins in the first months of the war, eventually falling to Russian forces in May.

Hundreds were killed in the bombing of a theatre where families with children were sheltering. The Organization for Security and Cooperation and Europe (OSCE) said Russia's early bombing of a maternity hospital there was a war crime. Moscow denied that and has said since it invaded on Feb. 24 last year that it does not target civilians.

Putin has largely remained inside the Kremlin during the conflict while overseeing Russia's military operation in Ukraine. In contrast, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has made several trips to the front lines to boost troop morale and talk strategy.

Putin's visit has been seen by some as a gesture of defiance and an attempt to assert Russian dominance in the region.

Putin has not publicly commented on the move, but his spokesman said it was legally "null and void" and that Russia found the very questions raised by the ICC to be "outrageous and unacceptable".

Mariupol is in the Donetsk region, which is one of four regions that Russia has annexed. This action was widely condemned by the international community and seen as an imperialistic land grab.

Putin travelled there by helicopter after a visit to Crimea on the ninth anniversary of its annexation by Russia from Ukraine.

From Mariupol, he went to Rostov in southern Russia, where state TV on Sunday showed him meeting Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, commander of Russia's war effort in Ukraine.

The visit has been met with mixed reactions, with some residents expressing gratitude for Putin's visit, while others see it as an attempt to legitimize Russia's occupation of the region.