March 18, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Crimea's largest city, Sevastopol, Saturday for the nine-year anniversary of Russia's declared annexation of the peninsula. 

In Crimea, Putin is expected to participate in the opening of a cultural-historical monument, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. 

About Crimea: In 2014, thousands of Russian-speaking troops — dubbed “little green men” and later acknowledged by Moscow to be Russian soldiers — poured into the Crimean peninsula. Within days, Russia completed its annexation in a referendum that was slammed by Ukraine and most of the world as illegitimate.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to retake Crimea from Russia.

"It is not an intention, it is our land. Crimea is our sea and our mountains. Give us your weapons and we will regain (what is) ours," Zelensky said in January when asked during a panel at the Davos forum if he intends to retake Crimea. 

Russia has blamed Ukraine for attacks in Crimea during the past year. A huge blast that damaged part of the bridge connecting the peninsula to Russia spurred heavy Russian strikes on Ukraine in October 2022.

Turkey will work to further extend the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which guarantees safe passage for ships carrying vital grain exports from Ukraine, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Saturday.

The deal is due to expire today, though an extension struck this week will allow shipments to continue for at least 60 days.

Russia on Monday said it had agreed to a 60-day extension of the deal, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov describing the move as a “goodwill gesture.” 

But on Thursday, the UN emphasized that the deal states it would be extended for 120 days rather than 60. “The agreement is public, it’s an open document. It foresees a rollover of 120 days,” UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said. 

egeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner private military group, announced Saturday that he plans to recruit about 30,000 new fighters by mid-May.

Prigozhin also claimed Wagner recruits about 500 to 800 people on average each day — and sometimes up to 1,200 per day.

Last week, Prigozhin said Wagner had opened recruitment efforts in 42 cities in Russia. 

Wagner has focused its attention on recruiting mercenaries from sports clubs, boxing gyms and other gyms, as well as men who have previously completed six-month contracts and could be rehired. Wagner has also recruited a small number of foreign fighters.

CNN previously reported that Wagner said it stopped recruiting from prisons in January. The prison recruitment campaign was well-publicized and widespread, netting as many as 40,000 fighters for Wagner last year. 

But many of the private military group's recruits are believed to have been killed or wounded in heavy fighting around the eastern city of Bakhmut. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited his international “best friend,” China’s leader Xi Jinping, to Moscow for a three-day state visit beginning Monday.

There’s sure to be plenty of glad-handing, champagne toasts, a major press conference and – behind closed doors – serious discussion.

For Xi, it’s a high-profile trip: his first state visit to any country since being appointed to an unprecedented third term in office. Kremlin officials say the two leaders will be signing “important documents” that will “deepen relations” and solidify economic cooperation. But for both men, this trip is much more than just another chapter in what they both describe as a “no limits” friendship.

For Putin, it’s a welcome show of support from his biggest ally after a year of military failure to attain his so-called goal of “de-Nazifying and de-militarizing” Ukraine. Putin’s army is burning through military hardware, ammunition – and men.

He has reached out to North Korea and Iran for weapons and drones, but getting more weapons, ammunition and perhaps drones from China would be a major victory for the Russian president.

However, that could be a hard sell.

Read the full analysis piece here.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday signed laws that prohibit "discrediting" and spreading “fake news” about volunteers and mercenaries participating in the war in Ukraine.

Putin signed a law amending the criminal code about spreading "fakes" in relation to the Russian armed forces, extending it to also apply to volunteers and mercenaries, with the maximum punishment up to 15 years in prison.

Putin also signed a law that prohibits discrediting participants in the so-called "special operation" — Russia's euphemism for the full-scale invasion — including volunteers, according to the decree published on the country's official portal of legal information.

Violations of that law carry a punishment of up to seven years in prison.

The new law comes as Wagner fighters have become the disposable infantry of the Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine.

More about Wagner: The private military contractor is run by oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has been highly visible on the front lines in recent weeks – and quick to claim credit for Russian advances. Wagner fighters have been heavily involved in taking the town of Soledar, which is a few miles northeast of Bakhmut, and areas around it.

At the start of Russia's war in Ukraine last year, Russian authorities restricted access to news publications, including BBC Russia, Radio Liberty and Latvia-based Meduza.

The media outlets were added to a list of publications “containing appeals for mass riots, and participation in illegal mass rallies,” according to state news agency RIA Novosti.

In one of the most significant escalations of military support to Ukraine from a NATO member since the Russian invasion, Polish President Andrzej Duda on Thursday became the first leader from the security alliance to pledge fighter jets to Kyiv.

Duda announced that four MiG-29 fighters will be handed over to Ukraine in the coming days – the rest, he said, are being serviced and will likely be handed over successively.

The US has so far resisted calls to provide F-16s to Ukraine on the grounds of avoiding escalation with Russia, as well as impracticality.

The desire to avoid a cataclysmic spill-over of the conflict was front of mind this week after the downing of a $32 million US Reaper drone over the Black Sea by a Russian jet – the first time Russian and American aircraft have come into direct contact since the war began. The potentially incendiary incident was seized on by Russia as proof of direct American involvement in the conflict.

Still, the shift from resistance to delivery has happened before; the US came around to supplying Ukraine with M1 Abrams tanks after Germany reversed their own policy on Leopard II tanks.

But the impracticality argument is not a mere political fig leaf. The Ukrainian Air Force already operates MiG jets so they will be able to use them as soon as they arrive, whereas it would take months to train a MiG-29 pilot to a high level of comfort and efficacy on an F-16. Not to mention that Ukrainian pilots are in short supply.

Read the full analysis piece here.

h International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor told CNN he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin could stand trial for alleged crimes committed during Russia’s war in Ukraine, despite Moscow’s arguments that it is not subject to the court’s decisions.

He was speaking after the ICC issued its arrest warrant for Putin for an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia.

Russia is among several leading nations not to have signed the treaty that brought the court into existence. Given this, it is highly unlikely Putin would be handed over to the court's jurisdiction.

But in an interview with CNN’s Clarissa Ward, Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan pointed to historic trials of Nazi war criminals, former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milošević, and former Liberian leader Charles Taylor, as examples of seemingly untouchable figures who faced justice.

“All of them were mighty, powerful individuals and yet they found themselves in courtrooms,” he said.

The move has already made history by making Putin the first head of state of a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council to be issued with an arrest warrant, Khan pointed out.

US President Joe Biden has welcomed the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The US leader acknowledged the court's authority is not recognized by Russia or the US, "but I think it makes a very strong point," he said. 

Putin has “clearly committed war crimes,” Biden added.

The White House said it welcomed accountability for perpetrators of war crimes but stopped short of a full-throated endorsement of the ICC’s arrest warrant when it issued an initial statement earlier Friday.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby declined to say whether Biden would tell law enforcement to arrest Putin if he came to the US. Putin traveling to the country in the first place is "very, very unlikely," Kirby told CNN's Jake Tapper. 

Welcome to our coverage of the conflict in Ukraine. If you are just joining us, here is a recap of our main news –  the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.