The Denver Post

Facing arrest warrant, Putin celebrates Crimean annexation

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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 Internatio­nal Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader accusing him of war crimes.

Putin visited an art school and a children’s center that are part of a project to develop a historical park on the site of an ancient Greek colony, Russian state news agencies said.

The ICC accused him Friday of bearing personal responsibi­lity for the abductions of children from Ukraine during Russia’s full- scale invasion of the neighborin­g country that started almost 13 months ago.

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that most of the world denounced as illegal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has demanded that Russia withdraw from the peninsula as well as the areas it has occupied since last year.

Putin has shown no intention of relinquish­ing the Kremlin’s gains. Instead, he stressed Friday the importance of holding Crimea.

“Obviously, security issues take top priority for Crimea and Sevastopol now,” he said, referring to Crimea’s largest city. “We will do everything needed to fend off any threats.”

Putin took a plane to travel the 1,132 miles from Moscow to Sevastopol, where he took the wheel of the car that transporte­d him around the city, according to Moscow- installed governor Mikhail Razvozhaye­v.

The ICC’S arrest warrant was the first issued against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the U. N. Security Council. The court, which is based in The Hague, Netherland­s, also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Lvova- Belova, the commission­er for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation.

The move was immediatel­y dismissed by Moscow — and welcomed by Ukraine as a major breakthrou­gh. However, the chances of Putin facing trial at the ICC are highly unlikely because Moscow does not recognize the court’s jurisdicti­on or extradite its nationals.

Putin signed a law Saturday that imposes stiff fines for dis

crediting or spreading misleading informatio­n about volunteers or mercenarie­s fighting in Ukraine. The law calls for a fining individual­s $ 660 for a first offense and up to 15 years in prison for repeated offenses.

The measure mirrors one passed in the early days of the war that applied to speaking negatively about soldiers or the Russian military in general.

Fighters from the Wagner Group, a private Russian military company known for fierce tactics, have taken key roles in Ukraine, particular­ly in Russia’s grinding campaign to seize the eastern Donetsk province town of Bakhmut.

In Ukraine, authoritie­s reported widespread Russian attacks Friday night and Saturday morning.

Writing on Telegram, the Ukrainian air force command said 11 out of 16 drones were shot down during attacks that targeted the capital, Kyiv, and the western Lviv province, among other areas.

The leader of the Kyiv city administra­tion, Serhii Popko, said Ukrainian air defenses shot down all drones heading for the capital. Lviv Gov. Maksym Kozytskyi said Saturday that three of six drones were shot down, with the other three hitting a district that borders Poland.

According to the Ukrainian air force, the attacks were carried out from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov and Russia’s Bryansk province, which also borders Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military reported that between Friday morning and Saturday morning, Russian forces launched 34 airstrikes, one missile strike and 57 rounds of anti- aircraft fire. It said falling debris hit southern Ukraine’s Kherson province, damaging seven houses and a kindergart­en.

Russia is still concentrat­ing the bulk of its offensive operations in Ukraine’s industrial east, focusing attacks on Bakhmut and other parts of Donetsk province.

Regional Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said one person was killed and three wounded when 11 towns and villages in the province were shelled Friday.

Further west, Russian rockets hit a residentia­l area overnight in the city of Zaporizhzh­ia, the regional capital of the partially occupied province of the same name. No casualties were reported, but houses were damaged, Anatoliy Kurtev of the Zaporizhzh­ia City Council said.

British military officials said Saturday that Russia was likely to expand mandatory conscripti­on to replenish its troops fighting in Ukraine. The U. K. Defense Ministry said in its latest analysis that deputies in the Russian Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, introduced a bill to change the draft ages for men to 21- 30, from the current 18- 27.

The ministry said many Russian men ages 18- 21 claim exemptions from military service because they are enrolled in universiti­es. The wider age range would mean they eventually would have to serve. British officials said the law likely would pass and take effect in January.

 ?? KREMLIN PRESS SERVICE VIA AP ?? Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Sevastopol Gov. Mikhail Razvozhaye­v, center, listen to Tikhon Shevkunov, the metropolit­an of Pskov and Porkhov, while visiting the Children’s Art and Aesthetic Center on Saturday in Crimea. Putin traveled to Crimea to mark the ninth anniversar­y of the Black Sea peninsula’s annexation from Ukraine.
KREMLIN PRESS SERVICE VIA AP Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Sevastopol Gov. Mikhail Razvozhaye­v, center, listen to Tikhon Shevkunov, the metropolit­an of Pskov and Porkhov, while visiting the Children’s Art and Aesthetic Center on Saturday in Crimea. Putin traveled to Crimea to mark the ninth anniversar­y of the Black Sea peninsula’s annexation from Ukraine.

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