Battle of Russia and Ukraine over Bakhmut. The International Criminal Court seeks to issue arrest warrants for war crimes

NEAR KREMINA, Ukraine, March 14 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine’s future hinges on the outcome of battles in the east, including in and around Bakhmut, and both sides have described brutal fighting in the small town as Russia intensifies its winter campaign. to pick it up.

The ruined mining town of Bakhmut became the epicenter of the Russian invasion, with the months-long battle destined to become Europe’s bloodiest infantry battle since World War II.

“The situation in the east is very difficult – very painful,” Zelensky said in a video address on Monday, delivered every night since Russia launched its invasion more than a year ago.

“We must destroy the enemy’s military power and we will destroy it,” he added.

Separately, in what may be the first international war crimes cases arising from the invasion, the ICC is expected to seek the arrest of Russian officials for forcibly deporting children from Ukraine and targeting civilian infrastructure, a source told Reuters.

Russia would certainly reject arrest warrants for its officials, but an international war crimes trial could deepen its diplomatic isolation over a campaign that has killed thousands of civilians and displaced millions from their homes.

However, Russia appeared to be on the cusp of a long-sought diplomatic breakthrough, with sources telling Reuters that Chinese President Xi Jinping may visit Russia as soon as next week.

China’s Foreign Ministry did not respond to requests for comment. The Kremlin said it had nothing to announce yet.

Ukrainian soldiers on the front line said on Monday they had repulsed attacks near Kremina, north of Bakhmut.

In a forest about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the front, cannons roared and explosions continually rang out in the distance.

Reuters reporters saw a soldier being brought in from the front with a leg injury. He was strapped to a truck with a splint and painkillers before being taken to a medical center.

“Two or three weeks ago, the fighting was at its peak, but it has subsided a bit,” said Mykhailo Anst, a 35-year-old paramedic. There is a lot of artillery and mortar fire.”

Bakhmut Mill

Described as a meat grinder by both sides, trench warfare took a heavy toll at Bakhmut in Donetsk, with both sides reporting the deaths of hundreds of enemy soldiers.

Ukraine’s military said early Wednesday that Russia had conducted five missile attacks, 35 air strikes and 76 attacks with heavy missile launch systems over the past day, including on civilian infrastructure in the Sumy and Donetsk regions.

It added that the Ukrainian forces repelled attacks on seven settlements on the Bakhmut front.

Russia says capturing Bakhmut would open a path to capturing all of Donetsk, a central war objective. Ukraine, which has decided to defend Bakhmut rather than withdraw, says exhausting the Russian army now will help its counter-offensive later.

But not every military analyst is convinced that defending Bakhmut is the best strategy for Ukraine.

Ukrainian military analyst Olli Zhdanov said in an interview that Ukraine suffered losses among the reserves it intended to use in a subsequent offensive against Russian forces. “We could lose here everything we wanted to use for those counterattacks.”

‘A tool in the hands of the West’

Russia launched what it called a “special military operation” on February 24 last year saying it had to disarm and “disarm” Ukraine.

Kiev and its Western allies dismiss this as a false pretext and say Russia has committed “crimes against humanity” by targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure. Russia denies this.

An informed source said the International Criminal Court, which opened a war crimes investigation in Ukraine last year, is expected to order its first warrants for the arrest of Russian officials “in the short term”.

The source said it was not clear for which Russian officials the prosecutor might seek arrest warrants or when they might be issued, but they could include the crime of genocide.

The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court declined to comment. The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Konstantin Kosachev, deputy speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, said the ICC had no jurisdiction over Russia since it withdrew its support in 2016.

“The International Criminal Court is a tool of neo-colonialism in the hands of the West,” he said.

Russia has countered previous accusations that it forcibly removed the Ukrainians. It says it only took Ukrainian children to Russia as a humanitarian effort to protect orphans and children abandoned by the conflict.

Ukraine says thousands of deported children are being adopted into Russian families, housed in camps, given Russian passports and brought up to refuse Ukrainian citizenship.

The United Nations Genocide Convention defines the “forcible transfer of children of one group to another group” as one of five acts that can be prosecuted as genocide.

Separately, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported that the Black Sea grain deal will be automatically extended after its expiration on March 18 if there are no objections from the parties involved.

Reporting by Reuters offices. Written by Himani Sarkar. Edited by Robert Purcell

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