Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to the media after a summit in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, on June 30, 2022. Putin traveled to Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of the Black Sea peninsula’s annexation from Ukraine on Saturday.

Dmitry Azarov/AP

conceal caption

toggle caption

Dmitry Azarov/AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to the media after a summit in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, on June 30, 2022. Putin traveled to Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of the Black Sea peninsula’s annexation from Ukraine on Saturday.

Dmitry Azarov/AP

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of the Black Sea peninsula’s annexation from Ukraine on Saturday, the day after the Worldwide Legal Courtroom’ issued an arrest warrant for the Russian chief accusing him of battle crimes.

Putin visited an artwork faculty and a youngsters’s middle, places that appeared to have been chosen in response to the court docket’s motion on Friday.

The court docket particularly accused him Friday of bearing private accountability for the abductions of kids from Ukraine throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion of the neighboring nation that began virtually 13 months in the past.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a transfer that many of the world denounced as unlawful. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has demanded that Russia withdraw from the peninsula in addition to the areas it has occupied since final 12 months.

Putin has proven no intention of relinquishing the Kremlin’s good points. As an alternative, he careworn Friday the significance of holding Crimea.

“Clearly, safety points take high precedence for Crimea and Sevastopol now,” he mentioned, referring to Crimea’s largest metropolis. “We’ll do every thing wanted to fend off any threats.”

The ICC’s arrest warrant was the primary issued in opposition to a pacesetter of one of many 5 everlasting members of the U.N. Safety Council. The court docket, which relies in The Hague, Netherlands, additionally issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for Youngsters’s Rights within the Workplace of the President of the Russian Federation.

The transfer was instantly dismissed by Moscow — and welcomed by Ukraine as a serious breakthrough. Its sensible implications, nonetheless, may very well be restricted because the possibilities of Putin dealing with trial on the ICC are extremely unlikely as a result of Moscow doesn’t acknowledge the court docket’s jurisdiction or extradite its nationals.

Widespread Russian assaults continued in Ukraine after the court docket’s announcement. Ukraine was attacked by 16 Russian drones on Friday night time, the Ukrainian air power reported early Saturday.

Writing on Telegram, the air power command mentioned that 11 out of 16 drones have been shot down “within the central, western and jap areas.” Amongst areas focused have been the capital, Kyiv, and the western Lviv province.

The top of the Kyiv metropolis administration, Serhii Popko, mentioned Ukrainian air defenses shot down all drones heading for the Ukrainian capital, whereas Lviv regional Gov. Maksym Kozytskyi mentioned Saturday that three of six drones have been shot down, with the opposite three hitting a district bordering Poland.

In keeping with the Ukrainian air power, the assaults have been carried out from the jap coast of the Sea of Azov and Russia’s Bryansk province, which borders Ukraine.

The Ukrainian navy moreover mentioned in its common replace Saturday morning that Russian forces over the earlier 24 hours launched 34 airstrikes, one missile strike and 57 rounds of anti-aircraft hearth. The Fb replace mentioned that falling particles hit the southern Kherson province, damaging seven homes and a kindergarten.

In keeping with the Ukrainian assertion, Russia remains to be concentrating its efforts on offensive operations in Ukraine’s industrial east, focusing assaults on Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Marinka and Shakhtarsk in Ukraine’s jap Donetsk province. Pavlo Kyrylenko, regional Gov. of the Donetsk province, mentioned one individual was killed and three wounded when 11 cities and villages within the province have been shelled on Friday.

Additional west, Russian rockets hit a residential space in a single day Friday within the metropolis of Zaporizhzhia, the regional capital of the partially occupied province of the identical title. No casualties have been reported, however homes have been broken and a catering institution destroyed, Anatoliy Kurtev of the Zaporizhzhia Metropolis Council mentioned.

U.Okay. navy officers mentioned Saturday that Russia is prone to widen conscription. In its newest intelligence replace, the U.Okay. protection ministry mentioned that deputies within the Russian Duma, the decrease home of Russia’s parliament, launched a invoice Monday to alter the conscription age for males to 21-30, from the present 18-27.

The ministry mentioned that, for the time being, many males aged 18-21 declare exemption from navy service as a result of they’re in increased training. The change would imply that they might finally nonetheless should serve. It mentioned the regulation will probably be handed and are available into power in January 2024.