Pro IQRA News Updates.
Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Crimea to celebrate the ninth anniversary of the annexation of the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine.
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, accusing him of war crimes.
The court specifically accused him on Friday of being personally responsible for the kidnapping of children from Ukraine during Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country, which began nearly 13 months ago.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move most of the world considered illegal.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Russia to withdraw from the peninsula as well as the areas it occupied since last year.
Putin has shown no intention of giving up the Kremlin’s gains. Instead, on Friday, he stressed the importance of the Crimea contract.
“It is clear that security issues are now taking the highest priority for Crimea and Sevastopol,” he said, referring to Crimea’s largest city.
“We will do whatever it takes to ward off any threats.”
The arrest warrant issued by the ICC was the first issued against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
The court, based in The Hague, Netherlands, also issued an arrest warrant for Maria Lvova Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation.
Moscow rejected the move immediately and Ukraine welcomed it as a major breakthrough.
However, its practical implications could be limited because the chances of Putin facing trial at the ICC are highly unlikely since Moscow does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction and does not extradite its citizens.
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