Russia-Ukraine war live: ICC issues arrest warrants for Russian commanders accused of planning strikes on Ukraine energy grid
ICC issues arrest warrants for two members of Russian military for missile campaign against ‘Ukrainian electric infrastructure’
The international criminal court in The Hague has issued arrest warrants for two senior Russian military figures who are accused of being responsible for a missile campaign targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure between October 2022 and March 2023.
The arrest warrants are for Lt Gen Sergei Ivanovich Kobylash of the Russian armed forces, and Adm Viktor Kinolayevich Sokolov of the Russian navy.
In a statement, the court said it “considered that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the two suspects bear responsibility for missile strikes carried out by the forces under their command against the Ukrainian electric infrastructure from at least 10 October 2022 until at least 9 March 2023.”
It continued: “During this time-frame, there was an alleged campaign of strikes against numerous electric power plants and sub-stations, which were carried out by the Russian armed forces in multiple locations in Ukraine.”
The court added it “considered that the alleged campaign of strikes qualifies as a course of conduct involving the multiple commission of acts against a civilian population” and that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that the suspects also bear responsibility for the crime against humanity of ‘other inhumane acts […] intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health’”
Russia does not recognise the court. It signed the Rome statute, which governs the ICC, in 2000 but never ratified the agreement to become a member. It formally withheld its signature from the founding statute of the ICC in 2016, a day after the court published a report classifying the Russian annexation of Crimea as an occupation.
The court has previously issued arrest warrants for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova in relation to the forced deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia,
Key events
Poland’s president Andrzej Duda has said that the Nato exercises currently being carried out in eastern Europe show “Poland is ready to implement our obligations arising from collective defence at any time”.
Speaking alongside president of Lithuania, Gitanas Nausėda, near Gniew in Poland, Reuters reports Duda said the exercises showed the readiness to defend the territory of Nato, including Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic states.
He said:
These are our joint exercises that strengthen the security of Nato’s entire eastern flank. Poland is ready to implement our obligations arising from collective defence at any time, it is determined. Lithuania can count on us that if there was such a need, Polish soldiers would stand shoulder to shoulder with Lithuanian forces to protect every inch of land from an enemy attack. This is a serious test for the soldiers, but it shows their excellent preparation and our readiness to move forces from west to east in response to a possible attack on Nato forces in our part of Europe.
Tuesday’s exercises involved crossing the Vistula River with tanks and armoured vehicles from various Nato countries at a point that is 340 meters wide. It is part of the Steadfast Defender exercises, with about 90,000 troops taking part.
The head of Moldova’s Information and Security Service has Russia is planning fresh attempts to meddle in the country’s internal affairs by provoking protests, interfering in upcoming presidential elections, and disrupting plans to join the European Union.
Alexandru Musteata said his agency had intercepted a record level of activities by the Russian security services since 2023 and expected more destabilising actions this year and next.
“Russian intelligence services intend to interfere in the election processes this year as well,” Reuters reports Musteata told the media.
“We have information that attempts are being made to compromise a referendum on the European integration, interfere in the presidential elections, as well as discredit government institutions and politicians who support Moldova’s accession to the EU.”
Last week pro-Russian officials in the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria appealed to Moscow for “protection”. Transnistria, which borders Ukraine to the east, has maintained autonomy from Moldova for three decades with support from Russia, which has more than a thousand troops stationed there.
ICC issues arrest warrants for two members of Russian military for missile campaign against ‘Ukrainian electric infrastructure’
The international criminal court in The Hague has issued arrest warrants for two senior Russian military figures who are accused of being responsible for a missile campaign targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure between October 2022 and March 2023.
The arrest warrants are for Lt Gen Sergei Ivanovich Kobylash of the Russian armed forces, and Adm Viktor Kinolayevich Sokolov of the Russian navy.
In a statement, the court said it “considered that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the two suspects bear responsibility for missile strikes carried out by the forces under their command against the Ukrainian electric infrastructure from at least 10 October 2022 until at least 9 March 2023.”
It continued: “During this time-frame, there was an alleged campaign of strikes against numerous electric power plants and sub-stations, which were carried out by the Russian armed forces in multiple locations in Ukraine.”
The court added it “considered that the alleged campaign of strikes qualifies as a course of conduct involving the multiple commission of acts against a civilian population” and that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that the suspects also bear responsibility for the crime against humanity of ‘other inhumane acts […] intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health’”
Russia does not recognise the court. It signed the Rome statute, which governs the ICC, in 2000 but never ratified the agreement to become a member. It formally withheld its signature from the founding statute of the ICC in 2016, a day after the court published a report classifying the Russian annexation of Crimea as an occupation.
The court has previously issued arrest warrants for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova in relation to the forced deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia,
Kate Connolly
Germany’s defence minister has said that one of the generals on a military conference call on Ukraine that was intercepted by Russia may have broken security protocol by using a non-secure line to dial in.
Boris Pistorius said the 38-minute phone call held over the platform WebEx that was subsequently leaked by Kremlin-controlled TV, had not been intercepted by an individual Russian spy but was most likely the result of a random sweep of insecure data on the sidelines of the Singapore airshow. One of the participants dialled in from his hotel room, and either his mobile phone or an insecure connection in his hotel provided the vulnerability, Pistorius said.
Speaking to journalists in Berlin on Tuesday morning, Pistorius said that disciplinary measures were being looked into, as the participant had contravened rigid security guidelines by not using a secure, authorised connection.
Polish media reported Tuesday that three unidentified objects looking like weather balloons have been found in the country’s northeast, and some of them had Cyrillic inscriptions.
The objects were in Poland’s Mazury lake district, between 20 kilometers and 100 kilometers (12 miles and 60 miles) from the border with Russia’s exclave of Kaliningrad.
Private radio RMF FM said none of the balloons had any special devices attached to them.
Emilia Plawska of local police in Szczytno told the media that the military had been notified and would inspect the objects.
A spokesman for the regional police, Rafal Jackowski, said there have been “many” incidents with meteorological balloons in the area.
Poland supports neighbouring Ukraine in its war against Russia and accuses Moscow of waging a hybrid war against Poland.
French president Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday said it was time for Ukraine’s allies to step up, stressing now was not the time to be cowardly.
“We are certainly approaching a moment in our Europe where it will be appropriate not to be a coward,” Macron told French expats living in Prague, Reuters reports.
Macron faced a backlash from many Western allies after he openly discussed the idea of sending Western troops to Ukraine at a Paris-based conference on Ukraine on Feb. 26.
In a reference to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Macron said on Tuesday that France and the Czech Republic were “well aware that war is back on our soil (in Europe), that some powers which have become unstoppable are extending every day their threat of attacking us even more, and that we will have to live up to history and the courage that it requires.”
Macron did not elaborate on this.
During his Prague visit, Macron is also expected to discuss support for plans announced last month by the Czech Republic, backed by Canada, Denmark and others, to finance the rapid purchase of hundreds of thousands of ammunition rounds from third countries to dispatch to Ukraine.
The European Commission on Tuesday proposed a new 1.5 billion euro ($1.63 billion) defence industry programme, which would be financed from the European Union budget for the period between 2025 and 2027.
The new programme calls on the 27 EU member states to procure at least 40% of their defence equipment collectively by 2030 and aims to have the value of intra-EU defence trade to represent at least 35% of the EU defence market, it added.
Read more from my colleague Lili Bayer reporting in Brussels for our Europe Live blog:
Lisa O’Carroll
Ukraine is pressing up to 10 EU member states to allow the extradition of criminals to the country, including suspects involved with the Wagner group and those accused of large-scale corruption.
Andriy Kostin, the prosecutor general of Ukraine, will tell EU justice ministers gathered in Brussels on Tuesday that the country has addressed concerns over security and conditions for prisoners on remand awaiting trial during a war.
He declined to name the EU member states that have concerns but it is known that several countries including France, Austria and Finland recently refused to send suspects back to Ukraine to face justice.
About 700 extradition orders had been issued by Ukrainian courts since the war started, he revealed.
Among the requests are a demand for the founder of a neo-Nazi operation associated with the Wagner group accused of being involved in terrorism, who was found to have entered Finland under an alias.
Russia’s defence manufacturer Rostec won’t deploy their most advanced battle tank the T-14 Armata to Ukraine, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.
In the latest intelligence update, the MoD said the chair of Rostec, Sergey Chemezov, stated the T-14 had entered service but would not be deployed to Ukraine.
“Chemezov stated this was due to the high cost limiting manufacturing of the Armata Main Battle tank (MBT) at scale,” the update said.
Russia on Tuesday accused Western ambassadors in Moscow of meddling in Russia’s internal affairs by attending the funeral of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, saying their behaviour raised questions about the point of such envoys.
The Ukraine war has triggered the deepest crisis in Russia’s relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and President Vladimir Putin has warned that the West risks provoking a nuclear war if it sends troops to fight in Ukraine.
Russia was dismayed by what foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday was a refusal by European Union ambassadors to meet him for a conversation ahead of Russia’s March 15-17 presidential election, Reuters reports.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, remarking on the envoys’ refusal, told Russian state television anchor Vladimir Solovyov: “The question indeed arises among everyone: what are they doing and why, how do they interpret their conduct on the territory of our country if they do not perform their most important function?”
Solovyov noted that EU ambassadors attended the March 1 funeral of Navalny, whom he cast as their agent.
Navalny, whose death at an Arctic prison colony was announced on Feb. 16, has always denied being a Western agent. The West says Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death.
Zakharova said the envoys’ refusal to talk with Lavarov showed they were meddling in Moscow’s affairs and putting on “performances” rather than doing diplomatic work.
The banner headline on Solovyov’s TV show read: “Should the EU ambassadors be sent out?”
Reuters photos showed that the Western envoys at the funeral service included French Ambassador Pierre Levy, German Ambassador Alexander Graf Lambsdorff and U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy.
Dan Sabbagh
How significant is Russia’s apparent interception of military talks on Ukraine?
Key questions answered after extraordinary leak of secret call involving Germany’s air force chief
How did the leak get into the public domain?
A 38-minute recording was gleefully released on Friday on social media by the high-profile Kremlin propagandist Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the international TV network RT. A day later she offered to help Olaf Scholz get to the bottom of the leak, after the chancellor announced an inquiry to find out how a recording of the top secret conversation, accepted by Berlin to be genuine, had entered the public domain.
How embarrassing is this for Berlin?
Very. Secret conversations between military chiefs are simply not supposed to emerge at all. The dialogue involves Lt Gen Ingo Gerhartz, the head of the Luftwaffe, and three subordinates discussing the capabilities of Taurus ahead of a half hour meeting the air force chief had scheduled with the German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, to get “deep into” Taurus and perhaps change Scholz’s mind.
What did the German officers say about Britain in Ukraine?
Gerhartz and his team discuss how far Germany might go in its support of Taurus, and whether Berlin would need to provide accurate targeting and programming information for the missiles it would be willing to give. They reference France and in particular the UK, and note that in the latter’s case there appear to be soldiers on the ground helping receive and advise the Ukrainians on bombing decisions.
Trust among allies remains ‘unbroken’ says German defence minister after military leak
Germany’s defence minister, Boris Pistorius, has said their investigation into the military leak has found communications systems were not compromised and maintains that trust remains “unbroken” among allies.
“A serious mistake happened here that should not have happened,” Defence Minister Pistorius told a press conference. “The reason the phone call could still be recorded… is due to an individual user error,” he said.
“We will take technical and organisational measures so such an incident does not happen again,” said Pistorius, accusing Russia of “trying to drive a division at home in Germany”.
An extraordinary leak of an online call involving Germany’s air force chief and three subordinates emerged on Friday, in which they discussed whether it might be possible to persuade a reluctant chancellor to approve giving the long-range Taurus missile to Ukraine, and whether the munition could blow up the strategic Kerch Bridge that connects Russia to occupied Crimea.
The defence minister said one participant on the call used a “non-secure line’ to dial into the webex call. Pistorius added they assume Russians tapped into the call via a participant who dialled in on the phone, “by chance using widespread surveillance”, reports Reuters.
The defence minister said he spoke with allies who say “trust in Germany remains unbroken”, and warned that disciplinary measures would be taken against the alleged participant.
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said the leaked conversations “once again highlight the direct involvement of the collective west in the conflict in Ukraine” – although on Pistorius, accused Moscow of waging “an information war” against the west.
Russia has taken steps to strengthen its forces in the west and northwest of the country in order to counter NATO, Interfax quoted defence minister Sergei Shoigu as saying on Tuesday.
Here are the latest images coming across the wires from Ukraine and elsewhere:
Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
Ukraine claims it has sunk another Russian warship in Black Sea
Earlier we reported Ukraine’s claim that it has sunk another Russian warship in the Black Sea using hi-tech sea drones as Kyiv’s forces continue to take aim at targets deep behind the war’s frontline. Russian authorities did not confirm the claim.
The Ukrainian military intelligence agency said a special operations unit destroyed the large patrol ship Sergey Kotov overnight with Magura V5 uncrewed vessels that are designed and built in Ukraine and laden with explosives, AP reports.
The patrol ship, which Ukraine said was hit near the Kerch Strait, reportedly can carry cruise missiles and about 60 crew. The Ukrainian claim could not immediately be independently verified.
Kyiv’s forces are struggling to keep the better-provisioned Russian army at bay at some points along the largely static 1,500-kilometer (930-mile) frontline, but are also taking aim at targets deep beyond the battlefield.
Last month, Ukraine claimed it twice sank Russian warships using drones. On Feb. 1, it claimed to have sunk the Russian missile-armed corvette Ivanovets, and on Feb. 14 it said it destroyed the Caesar Kunikov landing ship. Russian officials did not confirm those claims.
Britain has urged a reluctant Berlin to supply long-range Taurus missiles to Kyiv despite an embarrassing leak to Russian television of a top-secret call involving German air force officers who said UK troops were “on the ground” in Ukraine.
The Kremlin sought to exploit what it saw as a propaganda coup and pressure the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who in turn insisted on Monday he would not donate missiles that could strike at the strategic Kerch bridge linking Russia and occupied Crimea.
Released on Friday by the editor of the Kremlin-controlled news channel RT, Margarita Simonyan, the audio recording – confirmed as authentic by Germany – captures Luftwaffe officers discussing what they said was Britain’s military presence in Ukraine, helping the country select Russian targets.
Rather than publicly criticise Germany over the leak, Britain said it was for Berlin to investigate. Instead the UK toughened up its own lobbying on the Taurus missiles, which have a 300-mile range, twice that of Anglo-French Storm Shadow/Scalp weapons system already given to Kyiv.
Read more from Dan Sabbagh in London and Kate Connolly in Berlin here:
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine claimed on Tuesday that its forces had destroyed a Russian military patrol ship on the Black Sea near the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia 10 years ago.
Ukraine’s military intelligence spokesperson Andriy Yusov said the ship had been hit previously but was destroyed after the overnight attack by maritime drones.
“As for the crew, the details are being clarified. There are dead and wounded. But it is likely that some of the crew managed to evacuate,” said Yusov according to AFP citing Ukrainian media reports. There was no official response from the Russian defence ministry.
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Russia launched 22 attack drones against Ukraine, with air defence systems destroying 18 of them over the Odesa region, Ukraine’s air force said on Tuesday morning.
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Ukraine’s military said it contained a Russian advance outside Avdiivka, the city captured last month, but Russian troops were regrouping farther south around Novomykhailivka. Ukraine’s emergency services reported that two firefighters were killed near the eastern Ukrainian town of Kramatorsk – north of Avdiivka – when they came under Russian shelling at the scene of a fire.
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Britain has urged Germany to supply long-range Taurus missiles to the Ukrainian military despite an embarrassing leak to Russian television of a top-secret call involving German air force officers. A 38-minute recording was released on Friday by the Kremlin propagandist Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of TV network RT. The UK toughened up its lobbying on the Taurus missiles, which have a 300-mile range, twice that of Anglo-French Storm Shadow/Scalp weapons system already given to Kyiv. However, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, saidon Monday he would not donate missiles that could strike at the strategic Kerch Bridge linking Russia and occupied Crimea.
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Ukraine’s military intelligence agency launched a cyber-attack against the servers of the Russian defence ministry, and said it gained access to “a bulk of classified service documents”.
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A civilian US air force employee has been charged in Nebraska with transmitting classified information about Russia’s war with Ukraine on a foreign online dating platform, according to the US justice department. David Franklin Slater, 63, allegedly shared details about military targets and Russian capabilities on an online messaging platform with an unindicted co-conspirator who claimed to be a woman living in Ukraine and called him “my secret informant love.” Slater was expected to make an initial court appearance on Tuesday.
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The European Commission will on Tuesday propose how the EU can boost its arms industry and shift to “war economy mode”. Thierry Breton, the European industry commissioner, will lay out proposals to encourage EU countries to buy more weapons together from European companies, and to help such firms increase production capacity, according to EU officials.
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Breton, a French former tech company CEO, has said the possibility of another US presidential term for Donald Trump – who has undermined and threatened to quit Nato – means Europe has to do more to protect itself. Breton’s package is expected to include about €1.5bn in new money through the end of 2027. Breton has called for a special EU fund of €100bn for defence projects.
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Jack Teixeira, who leaked classified documents about Russia’s war in Ukraine on to the online chat service Discord, has pleaded guilty in federal court. Prosecutors said they would seek nearly 17 years in prison for Teixeira, a Massachusetts air national guard member. A defence attorney said he would push for a sentence of 11 years, describing Teixeira, 22, as a “kid” whose youth was partly to blame for his conduct.
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Ukraine’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said he and Oleksandr Syrskyi, the armed forces commander, discussed the frontline situation and supply of weapons with the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, on Monday. Syrskyi said separately that they also spoke to the British defence secretary, Grant Shapps, and Britain’s chief of defence staff, Sir Tony Radakin, discussing the needs of the Ukrainian military and the development of Ukraine’s naval capabilities.
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Ukraine said it had not seen the €16bn (£13.7bn) in proceeds from two donor conferences held in Poland in 2022. The two events in 2022 had raised €10bn and €6bn respectively, said the Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal.
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The UN nuclear watchdog chief, Rafael Grossi, said he intends to discuss Russia’s plans for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant it is occupying in Ukraine when he meets this week with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.
