February 2, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

An international center for the prosecution of the "crime of aggression” in Ukraine will be set up in The Hague, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced on Thursday. 

The UN has defined aggression as "the use of armed force by a state against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of another state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations.”   

“This center will coordinate the collection of evidence, it will be embedded in the joint investigation team which is supported by our agency Eurojust [the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation],” von der Leyen said. 

“So we will be ready to launch work very rapidly with Eurojust, with Ukraine, with the partners of our joint investigation team as well as with the Netherlands,” she added. 

Other calls for special tribunal: This announcement comes after the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) last week voted unanimously to “demand” the creation of a special international tribunal to prosecute Russian and Belarusian political and military leaders “for the crime of aggression in Ukraine.” 

A similar call came earlier this month from British politicians to create a special tribunal to investigate Russia's "crime of aggression" in Ukraine.    

A statement published on the website of former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown Friday proposed "the creation of a special tribunal with a limited focus on the crime of aggression" to complement the investigation being carried out by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into Russia's war crimes in Ukraine.   

The ICC is unable to probe into the crime of aggression if the act of aggression is committed by a state that is not party to the Rome statute which established the court, unless the UN Security Council refers the matter to it. As Russia has not ratified the Rome statute and would likely “exercise its veto in the Security Council against a referral” the ICC has been left unable to “investigate crimes of aggression against Ukraine,” the statement said.   

A two-week joint air force exercise between Belarus and Russia has concluded, the Belarusian defense ministry said Thursday.

“The joint tactical flight exercise" was aimed at “ensuring the security of the Union State” and was “exclusively defensive in nature,” the ministry said on its official Telegram channel.

The aviation drills were held in Belarus from Jan. 16 to Feb. 1. 

Separately on Tuesday, the ministry announced the start of a week of joint military drills with Russia for the combined command of their regional grouping of forces. The ministry said it is in preparation for the joint Union Shield 2023 exercises the two countries will hold in Russia in September. 

Why this matters: Russia used the territory of Belarus as one of its entry points for the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Joint military drills over the last year between Belarus and Russia have contributed to concerns that Belarusian troops could join Russia's forces in Ukraine, but Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has repeatedly dismissed speculation that his troops would join the fighting in Ukraine. In December, Ukraine warned it does "not rule out" a "deliberate provocation" from Russia after Belarus said that the wreckage of a Ukrainian missile landed on its territory.

Poland would be ready to supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets if NATO partners collectively decide to do so, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in an interview with German daily newspaper Die Bild published Thursday.  

"If this was a decision of the whole of NATO, I would be in favor of sending these fighter jets," he said.  

"My assessment is based on what NATO countries decide together," the Polish leader said, stressing that Russia's invasion of Ukraine ''is a very serious war,” in which Poland and other NATO countries “are not participating.”  

The decision to supply Ukraine with fighter jets needed the "strategic consideration of the whole NATO alliance.” 

Top Ukrainian officials have in recent days escalated their public lobbying campaign for US-made F-16 fighter jets, arguing they need them urgently to defend against Russian missile and drone attacks.  

The United States and Germany have ruled out any deliveries of fighter jets to Ukraine for now. Other NATO members such as France and the Netherlands have said they would be more open to the idea, however, neither the Netherlands nor France had received any official requests from Ukraine to send the fighter jets. 

In January, the German government — under pressure from allies including Poland — approved sending German-made Leopard 2 battle tanks to Kyiv.  

Berlin’s Ukraine policy has increased mistrust toward Germany, the Polish leader told Die Bild. 

"I would say that a year ago there was a lot of trust in Germany from many other countries. And now this pendulum has moved toward mistrust,” Morawiecki said, adding, "especially within the family of Central and Eastern European countries and also members of the European Union."  

''Germany has the potential to provide much more support than it has done so far, it has decision-making power within the European Union, it has money for Ukraine, it has diplomatic power," the prime minister went on to say.  

Morawiecki explicitly criticized German chancellor Olaf Scholz. Albeit Scholz' support for Ukraine, the chancellor "still seems to believe it should be business as usual with Russia," he said in the interview. 

The prime minister said that he believes talking to Russian President Vladimir Putin sends the wrong signal to the world. 

''I think it's wrong because it only gives Putin oxygen and doesn't achieve anything. Putin actually achieves his goals with such talks, because he shows the rest of the world and his own people, 'Look, I'm in great demand, everyone wants to talk to me, everything depends on me,'' the Polish leader said.  

CNN’s Natasha Bertrand and Alex Marquardt contributed to this post.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Thursday for more punitive measures against Russia by the European Union and said he had discussed a 10th EU sanctions package with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

“This is a common European task, to reduce Russia’s capability of evading sanctions. And the sooner this task is achieved, the closer we will be to the defeat of the Russian federation,” he added.

“It is not enough to have success on the battlefield. We need faith in a free Europe, in a peaceful Europe, in a united Europe,” he also said.

“We are making [Russian President Vladimir] Putin pay for his atrocious war,” von der Leyen said, speaking after Zelensky.

“Before Russia started this war, we were very vocal about the severe economic costs we [would] impose on Russia if it invades Ukraine. And today Russia is paying a heavy price, as our sanctions are eroding its economy, throwing it back by a generation. The price cap on crude oil already costs Russia around 160 million euros ($176 million) a day and we will keep on turning up the pressure further,” she said.

“Europe has been by Ukraine’s side since day one, because we know that the future of our continent is being written here. We know that you are fighting for more than yourselves. What is at stake is freedom. This is a fight of democracies against authoritarian regimes,” the EU commission president added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin "tries to deny the existence of Ukraine but what he risks instead is the future of Russia,” von der Leyen warned.

Past EU sanctions: In December, the European Union implemented its ninth sanctions package against Russia that added nearly 200 individuals and entities to its sanctions list. It included armed forces, members of the Russian parliament and defense industrial companies.

A fresh barrage of missiles ripped through the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine Thursday, wounding at least five people and damaging 13 two-story buildings, three four-story buildings, a children's clinic and school, garages and cars, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk region military administration.

A CNN team had just arrived at the scene and heard the first incoming strike on Kramatorsk. CNN saw the second attack, with two impacts about one minute apart.

Two women jumped from their car and ran yelling while other civilians took shelter wherever they could. Shrapnel bounced off the blastproof glass of one CNN vehicle. 

Paramedics rushed to the scene to treat at least one wounded civilian. Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko also confirmed that there had been a strike on the city, and urged residents to stay in bomb shelters. 

Here are some visuals from the ground following the first attack:

Moscow “will do everything” to ensure that anti-Russia events allegedly being planned by the West to mark one-year anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine are “not the only ones to gain the world's attention,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday. 

“Our diplomacy will do everything to ensure that the anti-Russian sabbaths planned for the end of February – as if timed to coincide with the anniversary of the special military operation, both in New York and at other sites that the West is now actively working on together with the Kyiv regime – so that this will not turn out to be the only events that will gain the world’s attention,” he said in an interview to state TV Russia 24 and RIA Novosti.  

Providing further details about Moscow’s plan to overshadow the alleged events being planned by Ukraine’s allies, Russia is preparing “reports” about what happened in the past year, and what they have “managed to find out” — alleging “direct participation” of the US in the Nord Stream pipelines explosions without any evidence.

Lavrov also dismissed the approach of western countries toward the war. "We see how the whole of NATO is now fighting against us. And those conversations that ‘we do not fight, but only arm,’ are ridiculous.” 

However, he said Russia has not requested military help from former Soviet countries under the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) agreement. “We have everything necessary to solve the tasks of the special military operation, to end the war that the West waged through the Ukrainian regime after the coup [in 2014]."

Some background: The members of the CSTO includes Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

Russian missile strikes have targeted the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk for the second time in two days, hitting near the site of an ongoing rescue operation on Thursday.

Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has arrived in Kyiv ahead of a summit with Ukrainian officials on Friday, as the country cracks down on corruption.

Here are the latest headlines:

The European Union (EU) will train an additional 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers as part of its Military Assistance Mission, the bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced on Thursday. 

“Russia brought war back to Europe, but Ukraine keeps fighting back,” tweeted Borrell.

Borrell also announced the EU would provide €25 million ($27.5 million) in equipment and training for mine-clearing operations in Ukraine.  

“Protecting civilians and their livelihood is a priority,” he said. 

The eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk has come under renewed Russian attack Thursday, one day after a strike there left at least three people dead, according to a CNN team in the city.

Two missiles landed near an ongoing rescue operation in the residential neighborhood that was hit on Wednesday night.

CNN bore witness to the missile strikes on the city – hearing the first incoming strike, and then seeing the second.

According to preliminary information, Thursday’s strikes have resulted in civilian casualties, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the regional military administration, but it was not clear how many.

The city's mayor, Oleksandr Honcharenko, confirmed that there had been a strike on Kramatorsk and urged residents to stay in bomb shelters.

Wednesday night's attack left eight people wounded, two of whom are in critical condition, Honcharenko said.