Ukraine war latest: Putin sacks minister in new sign of shift in war strategy; European country now pushing to let Ukraine strike deep into Russia

As  reported by Sky News yesterday, the International Criminal Court prosecutor has applied for arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant Gallant.

Karim Khan KC said he has reasonable grounds to believe the pair "bear criminal responsibility" for "war crimes and crimes against humanity".

He outlined a list of alleged crimes, including "starvation of civilians" and "intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population".

Israeli and US leaders have raged over the development, with Joe Biden calling it "outrageous" and some American politicians called for sanctions to be imposed on the court.

The Kremlin sought to goad the US over the statements of its leaders,

In 2020, the United States imposed sanctions on senior officials in the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused the court of "illegitimate attempts to subject Americans to its jurisdiction" - in a move that came as the ICC investigated whether US forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan.

And responding to US anger over the application relating to Israeli leaders, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "In general, the situation is more than curious in terms of the US attitude and willingness to use sanctions methods even against the ICC."

In March last year, the ICC issued warrants for the arrest of Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges.

Russia says the warrant against the president is a meaningless attempt by the West to soil the country's reputation, while it denies war crimes in Ukraine.

Ukraine says Russia committed war crimes. Russia says the West has ignored Ukraine's crimes, a charge denied by Kyiv.

Mr Biden said last year that the ICC decision to issue an arrest warrant for Putin was justified - and the US has shared details of alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine with the ICC.

Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, so Moscow does not recognise the court's jurisdiction.

"We are not parties to the relevant statute, therefore, we do not recognise the jurisdiction of the court," Mr Peskov said. 

Missiles supplied by the United States were used to strike Russian-occupied Ukranian region Luhansk, a Moscow-installed official has said.

The head of the Luhansk region, Leonid Pasechnik, said today that Ukraine had attacked it the previous day with ATACMS, wounding eight people.

The claim of the attack on the city of Sverdlovsk could not be independently verified.

Finland's government has proposed emergency legislation today to block asylum seekers entering across its vast and often snow-bound border with Russia.

Helsinki believes Moscow is promoting the migration due to political antagonism since the Ukraine war.

Finland shut the 830-mile frontier last year after increased arrivals from countries including Syria and Somalia, soon after Helsinki joined NATO.

The Kremlin denies weaponising migration, claiming the West is engaged in a smear campaign.

The draft law proposed by the right-wing coalition acknowledges that turning migrants back without processing asylum applications would breach Finland's international rights commitments.

But, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said, it would be temporary and only activated in exceptional circumstances.

We reported last week on the appointment of Andrey Belousov as Russia's new defence minister.

Analysts at the time said the decision to install an economist with no military experience indicated that Vladimir Putin was taking significant steps towards mobilising the Russian economy and defence industrial base to support a protracted war in Ukraine and possibly prepare for a future confrontation with NATO.

Seemingly in line with this move, the Russian president yesterday fired deputy defence minister Colonel General Yury Sadovenko and replaced him with former deputy economic minister and current federation council accounts chamber auditor Oleg Savelyev.

Thinktank the Institute for the Study of War said: "Russian milbloggers observed that Savelyev's appointment is consistent with the Kremlin's effort to improve the wartime economy, given that Savelyev has an extensive background in economics and experience in overseeing the audits of defence, national security, and law enforcement activities."

According to ISW, the milblogger added that Mr Belousov was beginning to form his own team within the Russian MoD. Some of those close to former defence minister Sergei Shoigu may soon resign, it has been suggested.

Mr Putin also dismissed presidential Advisor Alexandra Levitskaya yesterday, although the reason for his firing is "unclear", the organisation added.

Much has been made in recent months of Russia's apparently successful efforts to circumvent the plethora of Western sanctions imposed following their invasion of Ukraine.

In the latest response to this happening, US treasury secretary Janet Yellen has urged European bank executives this morning to step up their efforts to comply with moves to shut down Russia's evasion of sanctions.

She said at the start of a meeting with bankers that the secondary sanctions authority, implemented last December, had frustrated Russia's efforts to procure goods needed for its war in Ukraine, but that more work was needed.

"I urge all institutions here to take heightened compliance measures and to increase your focus on Russian evasion attempts," Ms Yellen said in prepared remarks.

"I ask that you ensure that your global sanctions compliance policies are stringently applied by your branches and subsidiaries abroad."

A longstanding point of contention since the war in Ukraine started has surrounded the issue of how the country should be permitted to use the weapons it receives from its Western supporters.

Mindful of the risks of an escalation that could draw NATO into a wider conflict, the major donors to Ukraine such as the US and UK have so far insisted that their weapons are not used to launch strikes into Russian territory.

While there has been a degree of broad contention around this policy, a minister from one European country is now suggesting it should be abandoned if Kyiv is to be given the best chance of defeating its invading forces.

Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said restrictions such as those imposed by the US on using long-range ATACMS missiles inside Russia were a "mistake."

"From the beginning, we have made the mistake of limiting the Ukrainians because it could be seen as an escalation," he said in an interview with French TV station LCI.

Ukrainian officials are reportedly trying to convince Washington to lift the ban - and Mr Landsbergis said such decisions were "dominated by fear of Russia".

"The Ukrainians must be allowed to use the equipment provided to them so that they can achieve strategic objectives," he said.

"They must be able to strike Russian territory, supply lines, and military units preparing to attack Ukraine.

"Only one side has rules imposed on it. We must abandon these rules that we created."

Some of the latest images from Reuters in Ukraine show Ukrainian servicemen patrolling an area heavily damaged by Russian military strikes, in the city of Orikhiv, in Zaporizhzhia region.

We reported last week on the Russian deployment of resources near the border city of Sumy. 

It was suggested by observers at the time that the move was an effort to draw Ukrainian forces away from other areas  - in particular from the Kharkiv region, around 115 miles south along the border.

Sources cited by the Institute for the Study of War thinktank supported this theory, saying Russia was concentrating "limited, understaffed, and incohesive forces" in the Sumy direction, but added that "even such a Russian grouping of forces will be able to achieve the likely desired effect of drawing and fixing Ukrainian forces in the international border area".

It said the the deputy commander of a Ukrainian brigade operating in northern Kharkiv Oblast reported Russia's military, including Chechen forces, was "accumulating in the Sumy direction but that the limited number of Russian personnel suggests that the Russian objective is to draw and fix Ukrainian forces to the international border area".

Ukrainian military observer Kostyantyn Mashovets, the group reported, stated that the Russian grouping in Kursk Oblast consisted of 9,000–10,000 personnel, comprising up to "three under-strength motorised rifle regiments (each lacking one to two battalions); eight motorized rifle, tank, and infantry battalions; and one airborne (VDV) battalion all redeployed from various units, formations, and military districts; and at least two assault detachments at the echelon of a reinforced company or an under-strength battalion".

Ukrainian forces shot down 28 out of 29 drones used by Russian forces in an overnight attack on seven regions, Ukraine's air force said in a statement this morning.

Statements from Kharkiv governor Oleh Syniehubov and the Ukrainian internal affairs ministry said the drone attack damaged four private residences and 25 trucks and buses in the region, injuring five people.

A missile attack later in the morning targeted transport infrastructure and injured two more people in the city, the governor added.

Two drones shot down in Dnipropetrovsk region damaged outbuildings, with no casualties reported by the region's governor.

Three Shahed-type drones were shot down over the Kherson region, with 14 more shot down over the Odesa region, according to the Ukrainian military.

The rest of the drones targeted the Mykolaiv, Cherkasy and Kirovohrad regions.

The information could not be immediately verified.

Russia has stepped up drone and missile attacks around Ukraine this spring, causing significant damage to its energy infrastructure.

One person was killed and three wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack on the village of Oktyabrsky in Russia's Belgorod region, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov has said.

We'll bring you more detail on this as we get it.