the kremlin says putin also stopped in their neighborhood and spoke to residents. they say he was invited into one of their homes. early on saturday, putin flew to crimea to mark the ninth anniversary since russia announced the annexation of the ukrainian peninsula. the move was made after russia sent in troops and staged a hasty referendum in 2014. ukraine says crimea has been suffering under kremlin rule. kyiv also said it s only a matter of time before all of its occupied lands are liberated. cnn s clare sebastian joins us from london with more. what message is putin trying to send here? kim, these visits were unannounced and come just a day, of course, after an arrest warrant was issued by the international criminal court against vladimir putin, himself. obviously with crimea, it was designed to coincide with the anniversary of that annexation, the ninth anniversary. but visiting mariupol, which we believe is the first time he s visited russian-occupied territories in ukraine sin
annexed in 2014. ukraine has been defiant and you say it is yours. i m curious to get your response to what appears to be a shift in strategy on the u.s. s part too? first of all, ukraine never had any doubts that we should be released from russian aggression, every single piece of ukraine territory. and the only way we could provide the free and integrity of ukraine on all of the including the donbas and the crimea. and with that situation, i personally don t see any changes in ukrainian policy and i don t see practically changes in the american policy. because me as a president all five years feel the strong and reliable support of the united states including crimea.
plunging temperatures won t stop front-line fighting. it s important not only for ukraine, it s important for europe, it s important for civilized world. reporter: ukraine s goal, reclaim all russian-held territory, including crimea, illegally annexed in 2014. ukraine urgently needs more weapons from the u.s. and nato. are you getting the weapons you need right now? you know, when you have a war, you will not have enough. we need certainly more, especially air defense systems, priority number one for us. have you been given an explanation why the patriot missile defense systems have not arrived yet? it s a long discussion, it s very sophisticated and expensive systems. i think they ll be on the battlefield in the next stage. reporter: that next stage includes protecting the power grid from russia s ongoing
the russian defense ministry says, a fire caused the ammunition to detonate. evacuations are now underway, and it comes just a week after a series of explosions caused major damage to a russian air base in crimea. moscow annexed them from ukraine in 2014. ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the incident. meanwhile, ukraine says, it s troops delivered a major blow to the notorious russian- backed paramilitary group. social media videos appear to show the aftermath of an attack on a base in eastern ukraine. apparently, used by the wagner group, a private military unit. also, pro-russian accounts linked to the group say, there were casualties. to the south, ukraine is attacking ridges, part of the campaign to cut off key russian supply lines, and loosen russia s grip on the region. for more, we want to bring in cnn s sebastian, who joins us live from london.
the fire was the result of a sabotage. this is the second attack in a week to rock the crimea area which moscow annexed in 2014. ukraine has not publicly claimed responsibility for the strikes but if kyiv is behind the attacks, it shows ukrainian forces new capability to strike deeper into russian territory. joining us now, live from kyiv, correspondent josh ledderman. what more can you tell us? reporter: well we all remember alex vindman, the face of president trump s first impeachment trial who blue the whistle about the infamous call where trump tried to strong arm president zelenskyy into opening investigation news hunter biden. we could now report that alex vindman is now back in kyiv, the city where he was born. he slipped into the country over the border from poland and is