Russia’s war on Ukraine latest: Biden says Putin war crime charges justified

(Reuters) – The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, accusing him of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. The Kremlin reacted with outrage.

PUTIN WARRANT

* U.S. President Joe Biden said Putin has clearly committed war crimes and the ICC’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for him was justified.

* The ICC move obligates the court’s 123 member states to arrest Putin and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he sets foot on their territory.

* It provoked a furious reaction in Moscow, ranging from dismissal of the court’s jurisdiction to vows to protect Putin from arrest. The Kremlin said the warrant was outrageous but meaningless with respect to Russia.

* Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations that its forces have committed atrocities during the invasion, which it calls a special military operation.

GRAIN EXPORTS

* The United Nations is “doing everything possible” to ensure a deal allowing the export of Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports continues, U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths told the Security Council on Friday, a day before the pact is due to expire.

DIPLOMACY, NATO

* Three senior U.S. security officials held a video call with a group of their Ukrainian counterparts to discuss military aid to Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff said.

* The International Monetary Fund said on Friday its executive board approved rule changes that would allow the IMF to approve loan programmes for countries facing “exceptionally high uncertainty” – a move expected to pave the way for fresh Ukraine loans.

* President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday Turkey’s parliament will start ratifying Finland’s accession to NATO, lifting the biggest remaining hurdle to enlarging the Western defence alliance as war rages in Ukraine, though he held off approving Sweden’s bid.

FIGHTING

* In eastern Ukraine, Kyiv’s forces continued to withstand Russian assaults on the ruined eastern city of Bakhmut.

* A commander of Ukrainian ground forces said on Friday Russian forces were trying to break through Ukrainian defences in several directions in an attempt to fully encircle Bakhmut.

A SELECTION OF RECENT IN-DEPTH STORIES

* EXCLUSIVE-Russians flood Kazakhstan with sanction-busting requests

* INSIGHT-North of Bakhmut, another key battle tests Ukraine’s defences

* SPECIAL REPORT-Wagner’s convicts tell of horrors of Ukraine war and loyalty to their leader

* ANALYSIS-Patchwork fixes to Ukraine grain shortfallleave world vulnerable a year into war

(Compiled by Reuters editors)