At night, the Russian army carried out a new series of attacks with these kamikaze drones on the territory of Ukraine. US President Biden and German Chancellor Scholz, meanwhile, welcomed the ICC’s arrest warrant for Russian President Putin.
The Ukrainian army announced that Russia targeted targets in the relatively peaceful region of Lviv in the far west of the country in air strikes, according to the French news agency AFP.
In a post on the online Telegram network, the Ukrainian forces announced that the air defense shot down 11 out of 16 Iranian-made Shahed-136 and Shahed-131 aircraft.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the Russian military launched the attacks from the Sea of Azov and from the western Russian province of Bryansk.
So far, there are no reports of possible victims of the attacks, but one aircraft is said to have hit critical infrastructure in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Several houses were destroyed and damaged in the fire that then broke out.
The planes also unsuccessfully attacked Kiev, the authorities in the Ukrainian capital announced.
Putin visited Crimea on the 9th anniversary of annexation
Russian President Vladimir Putin meanwhile, on the ninth anniversary of the unilateral annexation, he visited the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.
During an unannounced visit to the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, he visited an art school, accompanied by the Russian governor of the peninsula Mihail Razvozhaevthe coverage of Russian state television is summarized by the German news agency DPA.
Razvozhaev said on the Telegram social network that Putin was not expected, but with the visit “positively surprised“, and emphasized that the Russian president is always with the people of Sevastopol.
On this day in 2014, Putin formally signed an agreement on the annexation of this Ukrainian territory, which is not recognized by the international community.
Biden: The ICC warrant is justified
Meanwhile, the president of the United States Joe Biden responded to the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant for the Russian president Vladimir Putin. He marked her as justified.
In a conversation with reporters at the White House, he highlighted the strong message value of such an act, emphasizing that the US does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC.
Biden said it was clear that the Russian president had committed war crimes in Ukraine, the French news agency AFP reported.
On Friday, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin on suspicion of being responsible for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children from the occupied territories. The court also issued an arrest warrant for Maria Lvova-BelovaRussian President’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights.
Otherwise, the ICC cannot act against the Russian leadership, including President Putin, because, like the United States, neither Russia nor Ukraine are signatories to the Rome Statute, which is the court’s legal basis.
Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump signed an executive order in mid-2020 authorizing the imposition of sanctions against ICC officials involved in the investigation into possible war crimes by US soldiers and intelligence agents in Afghanistan.
The then US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo because of the investigation of war crimes by the Americans, he attacked the ICC, which he described as “the so-called court”which has revealed itself as a naked body politic by attempting to prosecute Americans.
Scholz welcomed the court’s decision
Even the German chancellor Olaf Scholz welcomed the ICC’s arrest warrant for Russian President Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine during a visit to Japan. He warned that no one is above the law and said that the ICC is the right institution to investigate war crimes.
Source: Rtvslo
