Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Crimea on Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of Moscow’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine, in defiance of the arrest warrant issued by International Criminal Court on Friday.
During the unannounced go to to the port metropolis of Sevastopol, Putin was accompanied by the Russia-appointed governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, and visited a kids’s college and an arts middle.
“Our President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin knows how to surprise. In a good way,” Razvozhayev stated on the messaging app Telegram, in line with Agence France-Press.
“But Vladimir Vladimirovich came in person. Himself. Behind the wheel. Because on such a historic day, the president is always with Sevastopol and the people of Sevastopol,” the Moscow-backed official stated.
Several European nations marked the anniversary by blasting Russia for its unlawful seizure of the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014.
“Nine years after the illegal annexation of Crimea, the [United Kingdom] continues to stand with [Ukraine] against Russian aggression,” the British Embassy in Kyiv tweeted. “In Crimea, Ukrainians suffer: citizens have no freedom, civilians are detained, and children are in ‘re-education’ camps.”
Sweden’s Foreign Affairs Ministry affirmed that it doesn’t acknowledge the Russia’s unlawful occupation of Ukrainian territory.
“We will continue our unwavering support for Ukraine,” the ministry tweeted.
The provocative journey got here only a day after the the arrest warrant for Putin, a primary for the court docket in opposition to a frontrunner of one of many 5 everlasting members of the United Nations Security Council.
The court docket accused Putin of committing struggle crimes, together with for the kidnapping of kids from Ukraine, within the 13 months since Russia’s bloody invasion of its neighbor.
The court docket additionally issued an arrest warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for youngsters’s rights, on the identical costs.
Ukraine officers cheered on the announcement, which President Volodymyr Zelensky stated mirrored his nation’s personal investigations.
He known as the warrant historic, repeating his characterization of Putin as a terrorist head of a terrorist state.”
Russia, nevertheless, shortly rejected the order, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov calling the warrant for Putin’s arrest issued by the Netherlands-based court docket “null and void.” The possibilities that Putin will truly face trial on the ICC are low, as a result of Moscow doesn’t acknowledge the court docket’s jurisdiction or extradite its nationals.
The warrant additionally did nothing to quell the combating between Moscow and Kyiv, with Russia persevering with a barrage of assaults throughout the war-torn nation Friday and Saturday.
Ukraine’s air power command wrote on Telegram that it shot down 11 out of 16 drones Russia despatched “in the central, western and eastern regions” Friday evening, whose targets included Kyiv and the western Lviv area.
Ukraine’s army wrote on Facebook early Saturday morning that within the prior 24 hours, Russia had launched 34 airstrikes, one missile strike and 57 anti-aircraft assaults. The replace famous that one in all assaults focused a settlement within the Kherson area, which broken seven properties and a kindergarten.
Separately, Turkey and the United Nations introduced that the grain export deal between Ukraine and Russia that was set to run out Sunday was prolonged for at least 60 days, following a number of days of talks facilitated by the Turkish authorities.
The two nations clashed over how lengthy they wished the deal to proceed, and officers have differed of their bulletins for the newest extension.
Russia agreed to increase the deal for less than 60 days, in line with a letter from its UN consultant shared by international ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova. Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said a 120-day extension had been secured.
The grain deal, first signed in July following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Black Sea blockade, has allowed the distribution of over 25 million tons of meals, serving to to ease world meals costs and stabilize the markets, in line with the UN.
With Post wires
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