Mongolia's failure to arrest President Vladimir Putin on an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant has dealt a “major blow” to the international criminal law system, Ukraine's foreign ministry said on Monday. Mongolian officials are taking responsibility for war crimes with Russia as the Russian president arrives for talks that are likely to focus on a new gas pipeline linking Russia with China. “Mongolia shared responsibility for war crimes by allowing the accused to evade justice,” Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Heorkhye Tykhy said.
The ICC said last week that all member states have an “obligation” to detain people wanted by the court. But in reality, there is little that can be done if Mongolia does not comply. “Putin is a fugitive,” said Altantuya Batdorj, executive director of Amnesty International Mongolia. “Any visit to an ICC member state that does not result in an arrest reinforces Putin's current course of action and should be seen as part of a strategic effort to undermine the ICC's work.”
In Brussels, the European Commission called on Mongolia to fulfil the obligations it undertook when it acceded to the ICC's Rome Statute in 2002.Human Rights Watch noted that Mongolia was one of 94 countries that signed a joint statement in June declaring their “unwavering support” for the ICC. One of the Mongolian judges Mongolia gave Putin a salute of honor and did not indicate he was at risk of arrest, but it did not officially respond to calls to honour the arrest warrant.
Russian invaders advanced on 477 square kilometers (184 square miles) of Ukrainian territory in August, Moscow's biggest monthly increase since October 2022, according to data provided by the Institute for War Studies and analyzed by AFP.Meanwhile, Ukraine made rapid advances in early August, advancing more than 1,100 square kilometers into Russia's Kursk region in two weeks, but the pace of its advance has slowed in recent days as the situation in the region has stabilized.
Russia claims it has seized a string of villages and settlements in eastern Ukraine in recent weeks, gradually drawing closer to the city of Pokrovsk.The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Monday that the village of Skuchinye in Donetsk had been taken, but gave no details. President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted the front was stationary: “On the Pokrovsk side, no matter how difficult it is, there has been no progress for two days. This is what the supreme commander told me.”
Putin on Monday acknowledged the difficulties that Ukraine's invasion of Kursk – the largest attack by a foreign force on Russia since World War II – is causing in Russia's border regions.“People are experiencing great hardships, especially in the Kursk region,” Putin told schoolchildren at a televised event in Siberia. “But the enemy has not achieved the main task it set itself – to halt our offensive in Donbas. It has been a long time since we have seen such a pace of offensive in Donbas.”
Russian forces launched a missile attack on the Ukrainian capital of Dnipro on Monday, killing one person, wounding three and damaging homes, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Governor Serhiy Lysak said.Russian forces attacked the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Monday, striking a residential area and wounding at least 13 people, local authorities said.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that Ukraine's Western allies should not only allow their weapons to be used in attacks on Russian soil, but also supply more arms to Kiev.Zelenskiy said on Monday after meeting Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schuch in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia that Kiev was “more positive” about the prospects of receiving such permission.
Shouch announced 200 million euros in aid to Ukraine to help protect and repair its power infrastructure, which is targeted almost daily by Russian bomb attacks.He said the Netherlands would continue to provide Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets and ammunition, and noted a plan proposed last month by U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham to send retired F-16 pilots from other countries to fight in Ukraine. “But we need to look at these issues in consultation with all countries involved in the F-16 coalition.”
Shukh visited the underground school in Zaporizhia. “It must not become normal that children have to go to school underground. It must not become normal that people's homes are cold because a power plant was bombed,” Shokh said. In Kiev, Russia launched a barrage of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles overnight as children were preparing to return to school on Monday for the end of the summer holidays, the Ukrainian Air Force said. Three people were injured and two kindergartens were damaged.
Children and parents gathered outside a damaged school in Kiev as firefighters worked to put out flames and clear away rubble. One mother arrived at school with her 7-year-old daughter, Sofia, not knowing it had been attacked. It was Sofia's first day at a new school after a terrifying night, she said. “We hid in the relative safety of the bathroom,” said the mother, who gave only her first name, Olena.
Many Ukrainian refugee children are expected to start attending schools in Poland this year. My first autumn. For many students, Monday marks the first time they've returned to school in years since the twin disruptions of the pandemic and war. Many have continued to learn online in schools across Poland and Ukraine, but the Polish government has now said it will withhold a monthly stipend of 800 zlotys (about $200) for families if their students don't attend school in person.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said he met with his French counterpart Sébastien Lecornu on Monday and discussed the situation on the front and air defences. Joint ventures in defence industries were also discussed, he added.
A senior Russian military commander, Major General Valery Muminzhanov, has been detained in a fraud case. He is the ninth senior military official to be arrested in recent months on charges of fraud, bribery and abuse of power. The deputy commander of the Leningrad Military District was detained on suspicion of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.
