A multi-storey building burns after being attacked by a Russian air strike in Avdiivka, Donetsk:

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said Russia doesn’t recognise the International Criminal Court and regards its decisions “legally void”.

The international court’s move to issue an arrest warrant for Russian president Vladimir Putin over war crimes is “outrageous and unacceptable.” Mr Peskov refused to comment when asked if Mr Putin would avoid making trips to countries where he could be arrested on the ICC’s warrant.

An arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin has been issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, which accuses him of war crimes by taking hundreds of Ukrainian children from orphanages.

The court accuses Mr Putin and his children’s rights commissioner, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, of “unlawful deportation” of children “from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation”.

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

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Russian president Vladimir Putin has clearly committed war crimes and the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) decision to issue an arrest warrant for him was justified, his US counterpart Joe Biden said yesterday.

“He’s clearly committed war crimes,” Mr Biden said.

Speaking about the warrant from the International Criminal Court, he added: “Well, I think it’s justified. But the question is – it’s not recognized internationally by us either. But I think it makes a very strong point.”

The ICC has called for Putin’s arrest on suspicion of unlawful deportation of children and unlawful transfer of people from Ukraine to Russia since Moscow’s invasion began of its neighbour last year. The United States is not a member of the ICC.

There is no doubt Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine, a US State Department spokesperson said after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin.

“There is no doubt that Russia is committing war crimes and atrocities (in) Ukraine, and we have been clear that those responsible must be held accountable,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

“This was a decision the ICC prosecutor reached independently based on the facts before him.”

The US, which is not a member of the ICC, has separately concluded that Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine and supports accountability for perpetrators of war crimes, the spokesperson added.

Russian fighter pilots involved in an incident with a US drone that resulted in its crash will be given state awards, Moscow’s Defence Ministry has announced.

The move appears to signal the Kremlin’s intention to adopt a more aggressive stance toward future US surveillance flights.

The US military said it ditched the Air Force MQ-9 Reaper in the Black Sea on Tuesday after a pair of Russian fighter jets dumped fuel on the surveillance drone and then one of them struck its propeller while it was flying in international airspace.

Moscow has denied that its warplanes hit the drone, alleging that it crashed while making a sharp manoeuvre. It said its aircraft reacted to a violation of a no-flight zone Russia has established in the area near Crimea amid the fighting in Ukraine.

Ukrainian soldiers fighting in Bakhmut say they fear they are being sent to their deaths amid a relentless push by Russian forces to capture the city:

The arrest warrant is one of the most ambitious cases that the ICC has undertaken and Andriy Yermak, chief of Ukraine’s presidential staff, said the warrant was “only the beginning”:

Ukrainian forces have been continuing to withstand Russian assaults on the ruined city of Bakhmut, the focal point for eight months of Russian attempts to advance through the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

Ihor, a 36-year-old soldier at the mortar position, said Ukrainian forces had been targeted by air strikes, mortar fire and tank shelling.

“You don’t always check on what’s flying over your head,” he added, crouching in a deep trench.