Vladimir Putin is visiting Crimea to celebrate nine years since its annexation as the grain deal with Ukraine was renewed
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to Crimea on Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of Ukraine’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula.
His trip came a day after the International Criminal Court issued a war crimes warrant alleging he bore personal responsibility for kidnapping children from Ukraine following the Russian invasion.
In Sevastopol, Crimea’s largest city, Mr Putin met Moscow-installed Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev, with whom he visited an art school and children’s center that are part of a project to develop a historical park on the site of an ancient Greek colony owned by the Russian state said news outlets.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move denounced as illegal by most parts of the world and which soured relations between Moscow and the West. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said any peace solution would involve Russia’s withdrawal from the peninsula and the territories occupied since last year.
Mr. Putin has shown no intention of abandoning the Kremlin’s achievements. Instead, on Friday he stressed the importance of holding Crimea.
“Obviously, security issues for Crimea and Sevastopol are now top priorities,” he said. “We will do whatever is necessary to ward off threats.”
The International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant was the first issued against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. It was immediately dismissed by Moscow and hailed as a major breakthrough by Ukraine. But the chances of Mr Putin being tried before the ICC are very slim as Moscow will neither recognize the court’s jurisdiction nor extradite Russian nationals.
In Ukraine, authorities reported widespread Russian attacks between Friday night and Saturday morning, killing one person in Donetsk Oblast, where Russia continues to focus the bulk of its attacks on Bakhmut and other parts of the eastern industrial region.
Ukraine’s military said Moscow launched 34 airstrikes and one missile attack, while Kiev’s air force command said 11 of 16 drones were shot down in attacks targeting the capital Kiev and western Lviv province, among others.
With no end to hostilities in sight, the United Nations and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that a war deal allowing grain to be shipped from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports to countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia has been extended , although neither said how long.
Ukraine said the deal, which is linked to efforts to support Russian food and fertilizer exports, has been extended by 120 days, the period that Kiev and Turkey, which brokered the deal, and the UN wanted.
But Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the agreed period was just 60 days, after Russia warned that any extension beyond mid-May would depend on the lifting of some western sanctions. Russia has complained that its fertilizer is not reaching global markets despite the deal.
Earlier, in yet another attempt to increase the Kremlin’s influence over Russian discourse on the war, Mr Putin signed a law that would carry heavy fines and up to 15 years in prison for discrediting or disseminating misleading information about volunteers or mercenaries serving fight in Ukraine. The Wagner mercenary group has played a key role in Ukraine and recently launched a recruitment campaign for 30,000 more soldiers.
Additional coverage from the Associated Press
