Russian Defence Ministry reports Shoigu allegedly in Ukraine for three days now
The Ministry of Defence of Russia has shown footage of Sergei Shoigu, the Russian Defence Minister, supposedly visiting temporarily occupied Mariupol. This is the third message in the last three days designed to show Shoigu’s presence in the combat action zone in Ukraine.
Source: The Ministry of Defence of Russia on Telegram; Mariupol.Sprotyv (Mariupol.Resistance) Telegram channel
Quote from the Ministry: "General Sergei Shoigu, Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation, has inspected the work of a Russian Defence Ministry military construction facility for the restoration of infrastructure in Donbas during a visit to a special military operation zone." ["Special military operation" is what the occupiers call the war in Ukraine – ed.]
Details: It is reported that Shoigu has supposedly inspected the readiness of already completed facilities and the progress of work at new construction sites in temporarily occupied Mariupol.
The Russian Minister has allegedly visited the newly built "multifunctional medical centre, a Ministry of Emergency Situations national rescue centre and a new neighbourhood of 12 five-storey residential buildings".
In addition, the Russian Ministry has also reported that the occupiers are building "a new facility of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency of Russia, a new neighbourhood of six nine-storey residential buildings, schools and kindergartens" in Mariupol.
On 5 March, the Russian Defence Ministry stated that Shoigu "had a meeting with commanders of groupings of the special military operation" and that it was held "at the headquarters of the Russian troop groupings".
Nevertheless, on 4 March, the Russian Defence Ministry claimed that Shoigu had supposedly inspected "a command post of the Vostok (East) grouping directly on the contact line on the southern-Donetsk front" and listened to a report from Rustam Muradov, the commander of this grouping.
It was also reported that Shoigu decorated occupiers with state awards for fighting in Ukraine.
The Russian Defence Ministry has not specified which settlements Shoigu visited exactly. In the videos posted, the ministry showed helicopters in the skies, then Shoigu inside a helicopter, and several shots of Shoigu in front of destroyed houses.
All other shots were filmed inside buildings, in a hospital and the headquarters, which means it is impossible to figure out where exactly he was.
The video posted on 6 March shows a helicopter with Mariupol Airport in the background. However, there was no footage of Shoigu coming out of it.
Then, there were a few minutes of video showing Shoigu with a station of the Ministry of Emergency Situations in the background.
According to the Mariupol.Sprotyv [Resistance] Telegram channel, Shoigu's helicopter was spotted in the sky over Mariupol on 3 March. The visit was very brief.
Shoigu's route was reportedly "Mariupol Airport to Nevsky and quickly back".
Mariupol.Sprotyv notes that "de facto, the Russian minister's courage was only enough to reach the city sign".
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