Putin visits Crimea on ninth anniversary of annexation

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 Worldwide Felony Courtroom on Friday.

In the course of 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 faculty and an arts heart. 

“Our President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is aware of shock. In a great way,” Razvozhayev stated on the messaging app Telegram, in line with Agence France-Press. 

“However Vladimir Vladimirovich got here in individual. Himself. Behind the wheel. As a result of on such a historic day, the president is all the time with Sevastopol and the folks of Sevastopol,” the Moscow-backed official stated.

A number of European nations marked the anniversary by blasting Russia for its unlawful seizure of the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014. 

“9 years after the unlawful annexation of Crimea, the [United Kingdom] continues to face with [Ukraine] in opposition to Russian aggression,” the British Embassy in Kyiv tweeted. “In Crimea, Ukrainians undergo: residents don’t have any freedom, civilians are detained, and youngsters are in ‘re-education’ camps.”

Sweden’s Overseas Affairs Ministry affirmed that it doesn’t acknowledge the Russia’s unlawful occupation of Ukrainian territory. 

“We are going to proceed our unwavering assist 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 Safety Council. 

The court docket accused Putin of committing battle crimes, together with for the abduction of youngsters 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 prices. 

Ukraine officers cheered on the announcement, which President Volodymyr Zelensky stated mirrored his nation’s personal investigations.

He referred to as the warrant historic, repeating his characterization of Putin as a terrorist head of a terrorist state.”

Russia, nonetheless, 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 probabilities 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 preventing 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 “within the central, western and jap areas” Friday evening, whose targets included Kyiv and the western Lviv area.  

Ukraine’s army wrote on Fb 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 certainly one of assaults focused a settlement within the Kherson area, which broken seven properties and a kindergarten.

Individually, 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 not less than 60 days, following a number of days of talks facilitated by the Turkish authorities.

The 2 nations clashed over how lengthy they wished the deal to proceed, and officers have differed of their bulletins for the most recent 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 stated 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 international meals costs and stabilize the markets, in line with the UN.

With Publish wires