Russian president arrives in Crimea to mark the anniversary of the peninsula’s 2014 annexation from Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Crimea on an unannounced go to to mark the ninth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine.
Putin was greeted on Saturday by the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, and was taken to see a brand new youngsters’s centre and artwork college on what the official stated was a shock go to.
“Our President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin knows how to surprise. In a good way,” Razvozhayev stated on the messaging app Telegram.
“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-appointed official stated.
State media didn’t instantly broadcast any remarks from Putin, a day after the International Criminal Court (ICC) stated it had issued an arrest warrant in opposition to him and accused him of the conflict crime of illegally deporting a whole lot of youngsters from Ukraine.
Putin has but to remark publicly on the warrant. The Kremlin spokesman has known as it “null and void” and stated Russia finds the very points raised by the ICC to be “outrageous and unacceptable”.
Russia seized Crimea in 2014, eight years earlier than launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine says it would battle to expel Russia from Crimea and all different territory that Russia has occupied within the year-long conflict.
Putin has proven no intention of relinquishing the Kremlin’s beneficial properties. Instead, he confused on Friday the significance of holding Crimea.
“Obviously, security issues take top priority for Crimea and Sevastopol now,” he stated, referring to Crimea’s largest metropolis. “We will do everything needed 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 UN Security Council. The court docket, which is predicated in The Hague, Netherlands, additionally issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for kids’s rights.
The move was instantly dismissed by Moscow and welcomed by Ukraine as a serious breakthrough. Its sensible implications, nevertheless, might be restricted as a result of the probabilities of Putin dealing with trial on the ICC are extremely unlikely. Moscow doesn’t recognise the court docket’s jurisdiction or extradite its nationals. Putin would face arrest, nevertheless, is he travels overseas to an ICC member nation.
