PUTIN FLIES IN FACE OF ‘TOOTHLESS’ WAR CRIMES WARRANT – AND BRAGS OF REBUILDING MARIUPOL
VLAD Putin flew to the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol, in defiance of the international court warrant for his arrest.
He was filmed by Russian TV driving around the smashed city where he is said to have met with residents. It is probably his first visit to Ukraine since the start of the invasion in February last year.
It comes just days after the arrest warrant.
The accusations focus on the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia since Moscow’s invasion in 2022.
Moscow has denied the allegations and denounced the warrants as “outrageous”.
It is highly unlikely that much will come of the move, as the ICC has no powers to arrest suspects without the co-operation of a country’s government.
Russia is not an ICC member country, meaning the court, located in The Hague, has no authority there.
Before the war began about half a million people lived in the city. But
according to UN estimates, 90% of residential buildings were damaged or destroyed, and 350,000 people were forced to leave.
Ukrainian authorities say more than 20,000 died there.
But Russian-installed authorities in Mariupol say some 300,000 people are now living there.
Oleg Morgun, the Russia-installed “mayor” of Mariupol, says some 70,000 of those currently in the city are construction workers and members of the Russian military.
New buildings have appeared and many buildings damaged during the bombardment have gone.
The Russian military has built a new district comprised of a dozen apartment blocks in the western part of Mariupol. It is called Nevsky, after the River Neva, on which President Vladimir Putin’s home city of St Petersburg stands.
Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that last week’s US drone strikes over the Baltic Sea are a sign of direct American involvement in the conflict with Russia.
The destroying down of a US drone by Russian fighter planes was the first known direct military encounter between the two sides since the war began.
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