Ukraine urges Mongolia to arrest Putin when he visits next week

Ukraine has urged Mongolia to arrest Russian president Vladimir Putin on an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant when he visits on Tuesday, but the Kremlin said it was not worried about the trip.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant in March of last year against Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. The Kremlin has dismissed the accusation, saying it is politically motivated.
The warrant obliges the court’s 124 member states, including Mongolia, to arrest Mr Putin and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he sets foot on their territory.
“We call on the Mongolian authorities to comply with the mandatory international arrest warrant and transfer Putin to the International Criminal Court in The Hague,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on social media platform Telegram.
Asked earlier whether Moscow was concerned that Mongolia is a member of the ICC, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “No, no worries about this. We have a great dialogue with our friends from Mongolia.”
Asked whether there had been discussions with Mongolian authorities about the ICC warrant, Mr Peskov said: “Obviously the visit, all of the aspects of the visit have been thoroughly discussed.”
A Russian guided bomb attack on Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv hit a residential building and a playground on Friday, killing five people, including a child, and injuring at least 28 more, local authorities said.
“Occupiers killed a child right on the playground,” Ihor Terekhov, Kharkiv’s mayor, said on the Telegram social media app.
Three other people were killed in a 12-storey apartment block that caught fire as a result of the strike, he added.
A video from the site shared by the president’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak showed huge flames and heavy black smoke rising from the upper floors of the building.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, and the surrounding region have long been targeted by Russian attacks, in particular, by highly destructive guided bombs.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy renewed a call on western allies to allow long-range attacks on Russian military airbases after the Friday attack.
“A strike … would not have happened if our defence forces had the ability to destroy Russian military aircraft where they are based,” Zelenskiy said on Telegram.
Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians, but thousands have been killed and wounded in its strikes during the 2½-year old full-scale invasion of Ukraine. – Reuters