AFP: Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday visited Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of the peninsula’s annexation, a day after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him over the Ukraine conflict.
Turkey announced the extension of a deal that has allowed Ukraine to export grain following Russia’s offensive, but Kyiv and Moscow disagreed over the length of the extension.
Putin’s surprise visit to Crimea was his first to the peninsula since he sent troops to Ukraine on 24 February last year, apart from when he drove across the bridge linking the territory to mainland Russia last December.
Russian state TV showed him visiting the Black Sea port city of Sevastopol, accompanied by the local Moscow-appointed governor Mikhail Razvozhayev.