Russia-Ukraine war – live: Attempt to arrest Putin would be declaration of war, says Medvedev

An ex-soldier from New Zealand who co-founded a charity to help struggling veterans has been killed in Ukraine, authorities said.

Ukrainian authorities confirmed the death of Kane Te Tai and the New Zealand embassy in Poland was trying to find out more details, New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement.

Mr Te Tai in 2017 helped register the No Duff Charitable Trust to support veterans in crisis.

The trust said in a statement it was with “immense sadness” it was sharing the news that Mr Te Tai – who went by the code name Turtle in Ukraine – was killed in action.

“Without him, No Duff wouldn’t exist,” the trust said. “Kane had a huge heart and loved helping people. His loss leaves a huge hole in many lives from here to Eastern Europe.”

British intelligence said Russia had partially regained control over the approaches to the eastern Ukrainian town of Kreminna, after its troops were pushed back from the Luhansk territory earlier this year.

“In places, Russia has made gains of up to several kilometres,” the Ministry of Defence said in an update, adding that Russian commanders are likely trying to expand a security zone and are also seeking to recapture the logistic hub of Kupiansk in Kharkiv.

Russian forces earlier today unleashed a wave of air strikes in the north and south of Ukraine a day after Russian president Vladimir Putin bid farewell to Chinese leader Xi Jinping following a three-day visit to Moscow.

Any attempt to arrest Vladimir Putin would be a declaration of war against Russia, the president’s ally Dmitry Medvedev said.

The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant on Friday, accusing Mr Putin of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. It said there are reasonable grounds to believe the Russian leader bears individual criminal responsibility.

Former president Dmitry Medvedev told Russian media that the ICC, which countries including Russia, China and the United States do not recognise, was a “legal nonentity” that had never done anything significant.

On an attempt to arrest Mr Putin, he said: “Let’s imagine – obviously this situation which will never be realised – but nevertheless lets imagine that it was realised: The current head of the nuclear state went to a territory, say Germany, and was arrested,” Medvedev said.

“What would that be? It would be a declaration of war on the Russian Federation,” he said in a video posted on Telegram. “And in that case, all our assets – all our missiles et cetera – would fly to the Bundestag, to the chancellor’s office.”

EU leaders are set to endorse a deal aimed at sending Ukraine 1 million rounds of artillery shells within the next 12 months to help defend against Russia’s invasion.

The fast-track procedure was adopted during a meeting of foreign and defence ministers earlier this week, and leaders gathered at a summit in Brussels today will give it a political blessing, according to several senior EU diplomats.

With Ukraine facing shortages of ammunition to fight Russia, the idea of setting up a joint purchasing plan of action similar to the one devised during the coronavirus pandemic to buy vaccines was first brought to the table last month by Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas.

Russian forces are likely looking to recapture a logistics node in Luhansk along the Ukrainian frontline, the British defence ministry said today.

The ministry pointed to heavy fighting brewing in parts of the Svatove-Kremina sector of the front line in northern Luhansk oblast since the start of March this year.

“Russia has partially regained control over the immediate approaches to Kremina town, which was under immediate Ukrainian threat earlier in the year,” the ministry said.

It added that in places, Russia has made gains of up to several kilometres.

“Russian commanders are likely trying to expand a security zone west from the defence lines they have prepared along higher ground, and integrate the natural obstacle of the Oskil River,” the MoD said.

It added: “Operationally, Russia’s intent in the north-east likely remains defensive. Commanders probably fear this is one of the sectors where Ukraine could attempt major offensive operations.”

The Ukraine military has said that 660 Russian troops, 13 tanks, one air defence system, 11 armoured personnel carriers were destroyed in the past day in the latest war update this morning.

The Ukrainian military’s general staff agreed with the latest intelligence from the UK’s MoD, which suggested the potential for Russia to make gains in Bakhmut was declining.

“The enemy continues to conduct offensive operations, suffering major casualties, losing significant amount of weapons and military equipment,” said the general staff of the Ukraine army in today’s report.

“Ukrainian defenders have been repelling numerous round-the-clock enemy attacks in the vicinities of Bakhmut, Bohdanivka, and Predtechyne,” the general staff said, adding that numerous settlements near the line of contact were shelled.

Bakhmut is a key objective for Moscow, which sees the town as a stepping stone toward completing its conquest of the eastern Donbas region even though the salt-mining city holds little strategic value in the war.

Former Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev has said that a bid by any nation to arrest Vladimir Putin based on the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court will be considered as a “declaration of war”.

The remark made to Russian news agency TASS published today is the first such reaction after the international court in The Hague confirmed an arrest warrant against Mr Putin over charges of taking Ukrainian children to Russia.

It means the court’s 123 member states must detain Mr Putin and hand him over for trial if he sets foot on their territory.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has accused the West of disliking Russia and China’s independence in his remarks today.

“The coming decades will not be quiet,” Mr Medvedev claimed, as he accused the West without evidence of trying to break Russia up into smaller and weaker states.

“I believe that sooner or later the situation will stabilise and communications will resume, but I sincerely hope that by that time a significant part of those people (Western leaders) will have retired and some will be dead,” the Russian leader said.

He added that Ukraine was part of “Greater Russia”, and added that he saw no prospects for reviving Russia’s ties with the West in the near future.

The Russian military is now looking to clean up tanks from the Soviet era and likely use them in the continuing war in Ukraine, according to the US-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War.

“Russian forces may be deploying T-54/55 tanks from long-term storage to Ukraine to compensate for significant armoured vehicle losses,” the ISW said in its latest assessment of the war.

The T-54/55 tanks were first introduced in 1948.

Yesterday, Russian forces were seen transporting a train loaded with T-54/55 tanks from Primorsky Krai towards western Russia, and social media sources speculated that Russia may deploy them to Ukraine, according to the Georgia-based open-source Conflict Intelligence Team research group.

The ISW cited Dutch open-source group Oryx’s assessment as of 22 March that Russia has lost at least 57 T-90, 448 T-80, 1,025 T-72, 53 T-64, and 73 T-62 tanks in highly attritional fighting in Ukraine.

“Russian armoured vehicle losses are currently constraining the Russian military’s ability to conduct effective mechanised manoeuvre warfare installing offensives in Ukraine, and Russian forces may be deploying T-54/55 tanks from storage to Ukraine to augment these offensive operations and prepare for anticipated mechanised Ukrainian counter offensives,” it added.

After Clare Cannon made the decision to sponsor Katya and Dima to settle in New York, she knew she’d be responsible for helping them overcome their culture shock. Here, she documents one month of ups and downs in the US — and what actually happens to Ukrainian refugees once they arrive on American soil.