War in Ukraine – News: Putin makes a surprising last-minute trip to Crimea as an arrest warrant is issued

Russian President Vladimir Putin has traveled to Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of Ukraine’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula.

Mr Putin visited an art school and children’s center on Saturday, a day after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader and accused him of war crimes.

The court on Friday specifically accused him of personal responsibility for kidnapping children from Ukraine during the country’s massive Russian invasion that began nearly 13 months ago.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move considered illegal by most around the world.

Widespread Russian attacks in Ukraine continued following the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights.

Ukraine was attacked by 16 Russian drones on Friday night, the Ukrainian Air Force said in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The Air Force Command wrote on Telegram that 11 out of 16 drones were shot down “in the central, western and eastern regions”.

The target areas included the capital Kiev and the western province of Lviv.

The head of Kyiv city administration Serhii Popko said Ukrainian air defenses shot down all drones heading towards the Ukrainian capital, while Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi said on Saturday three out of six drones were shot down and the others three met a district bordering Poland.

A deal allowing exports of Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports, due to expire on Saturday, has been extended, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said, while a Ukrainian government minister said the extension had been agreed for 120 days.

“The grain corridor deal was due to expire today. As a result of our talks with the two sides, we have reached an extension of this deal,” Erdogan said in a speech in the western city of Canakkale, without specifying the length of the agreed extension.

Ukraine’s Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said the deal had been extended by 120 days.

The pact was negotiated by the United Nations and Turkey with Russia and Ukraine in July – and extended for another 120 days in November – to combat a global food crisis fueled in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 Blockade of the Black Sea.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Crimea on Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine, Russian state media reported.

We’ll have more on this story as it comes in.

Shortly after a train derailed and spilled toxic chemicals in Ohio last month, anonymous pro-Russian accounts began making misleading claims and anti-American propaganda about it on Twitter, using Elon Musk’s new verification system to expand their reach and at the same time create the illusion of credibility.

The reports, parroting Kremlin talks on a myriad of subjects, claimed without evidence that Ohio authorities lied about the true effects of the chemical plague. The reports circulated fear-mongering posts that exploited legitimate concerns about pollution and health effects, and likened the reaction to the gaffe to America’s support for Ukraine following its invasion by Russia.

Russia, China and Iran completed three-way naval exercises in the Arabian Sea that included artillery barrages on targets at sea and in the air, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

The exercises outside the Iranian port city of Chabahar took place as Russian President Vladimir Putin prepares to receive his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for a three-day state visit to Moscow starting Monday.

Russia has continued to conduct military exercises with partners, notably China, despite the strain on its armed forces from years of war in Ukraine, where it has not made much progress since last summer.

The Russian Wagner mercenary group plans to recruit about 30,000 new fighters by mid-May, its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday.

He said in an audio message on Telegram that Wagner recruitment centers he opened in 42 Russian cities last week were hiring an average of 500 to 800 people a day.

Prigozhin has directed Russian operations in the key city of Bakhmut in one of the longest and fiercest battles of the war.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has welcomed the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying it shows that “no one is above the law”.

The ICC on Friday called for the arrest of Mr Putin on suspicion of unlawfully deporting children and illegally transferring people from Ukraine to Russia since Moscow began invading its neighbor last year.

“The International Criminal Court is the right institution to investigate war crimes… The fact is that no one is above the law and that is becoming clear now,” Scholz said at a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo on Saturday.