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.
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.