On the ninth anniversary of Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, President Vladimir Putin has traveled to the Black Sea peninsula. The Russian head of state paid an unannounced visit to the port city of Sebastopol, the home port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Russian television reported on Saturday. There he attended an art school, accompanied by the local governor Mikhail Rasvozhayev, as shown by pictures from the Rossia-1 TV channel.

"Our President Vladimir Vladimirovich knows how to surprise. In the truest sense of the word," Rasvozhayev explained in the online service Telegram. Actually, Putin wanted to take part in the inauguration of the art school for children via video conference. "But Vladimir Vladimirovich came in person. At the wheel. Because he is always with Sebastopol and its people on such a historic day as today."

The Ukrainian peninsula was incorporated into Russia's own territory in 2014 after a controversial referendum that the government in Kiev and the West consider illegal.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Putin on Friday on suspicion of responsibility for the "unlawful deportation" of Ukrainian children to Russian territory, which is classified as a war crime.