Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to occupied Mariupol, the Kremlin said early Sunday. His trip to the Ukrainian city, which was devastated last year in a deadly Russian siege and is about 60 miles from the battlefront, is a show of defiance following the arrest warrant that the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued for him over alleged war crimes in Ukraine. It was Putin’s second foray into occupied Ukraine this weekend, following a visit to the Crimean peninsula.
German authorities will arrest Putin if he sets foot in their country, in accordance with the ICC warrant, Justice Minister Marco Buschmann told the Bild newspaper. Officials in Moscow described the warrant as unlawful and said they were investigating the German minister’s statement, according to Russia’s state-run Tass news agency. It is highly unlikely that Putin would travel to any of the 123 nations, including Germany, that recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Siobhán O’Grady and Kamila Hrabchuk in Kyiv contributed to this report.
