Ukraine-Russia war latest: International arrest warrants issued for former Russian defence minister and top general (2024)

More now from Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov, who has warned of "tragic and fatal" consequences if the West underestimates Russia's determination.

Mr Ryabkov said Moscow was ready to stand up for itself "and ensure its own interests inany situation".

"I don't even want to assume that this underestimation couldbecome tragic and fatal," he said, adding the West was confronting a major nuclear power.

"There are different ways to respond to this - rhetoricaland practical. We have the resources to convey signals to theWest in the field of nuclear deterrence, even in the absence ofour opponents' willingness to conduct a sober dialogue. Butthere is a danger, it cannot be underestimated, that their sidemay make a mistake. We will try not to," Mr Ryabkov said at a conference in Moscow.

Major world powers are responsible for stopping the world from "sliding into nuclear chaos", Russia's deputy foreign minister has said.

Sergei Ryabkov's remarks at a conference in Moscow came in response to prominent arms control expert Alexei Arbatov, who suggested that the multipolar world could fall into nuclear chaos without dialogue on strategic stability between Russian and the US.

Mr Arbatov had said such discussions should restart when the war ends, with nations such as China, the UK and France also involved.

During the conference, Mr Ryabkov, Russia's top diplomat for arms control, also said Russia's advances in nuclear deterrence meant its security would be ensured for decades to come, even in a world where artificial intelligence is advancing.

Asked if Russia could ensurenuclear security in an era of AI competition, he said: "In recent years, such groundwork has been done in thefield of nuclear deterrence that will allow us to ensure our ownsecurity for decades to come."

He added: "Our common task is to prevent the world and themultipolar world, above all, from sliding into nuclear chaos."

By Ivor Bennett, Moscow correspondent

Practically speaking, these arrest warrants won't mean very much.

Russia is not a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) so the court has no jurisdiction here.

"Insignificant" is how Russia's powerful Security Council, of which Sergei Shoigu is secretary, described the decision.

In theory, Shoigu's and Valery Gerasimov's movements are now considerably restricted.

Both face arrest if they set foot in any one of the ICC's 124 signatory states.

And that threat of detention was enough to deter Vladimir Putin from attending a BRICS summit in South Africa last year, after he became the subject of an ICC arrest warrant a few months earlier.

But as we've seen since then, Russia's president has still been able to clock up a lot of air miles.

In the past two months alone, he's travelled to China, Uzbekistan, Belarus, North Korea and Vietnam - none of which is an ICC member.

With friends like that, there are still plenty of possible destinations for Russia's latest suspects.

Shoigu does occasionally travel - he accompanied Putin to Beijing last month.

But Gerasimov not so much.

Behind Putin and Shoigu's successor as defence minister Andrey Belousov, he is the third most powerful person in the Russian military and is being kept busy back home by the war in Ukraine.

So there's no immediate prospect either man will be arrested.

All that being said, Ukraine and its Western allies will argue that this sends a powerful message.

There are now eight ICC arrest warrants against senior Russian figures related to the invasion of Ukraine.

Kyiv claims it shows that "evil" will be held accountable.

But Moscow will see this differently and may try to spin it to their advantage.

To justify its invasion of Ukraine, Russia claims it is under attack by the West. I suspect it will view the ICC decision as an opportunity to reinforce that narrative.

Moscow has announced it is banning access inside Russia to the broadcasts of dozens of EU media outlets, in a retaliatory move after a similar EU ban on several Russian media firms.

In May, the European Union said it was suspending the distribution of four Russian outlets - the Voice of Europe, RIA news agency and the Izvestia and Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspapers.

It said they were spreading and supporting the "Russian propaganda and war of aggression against Ukraine".

Today the Russian foreign ministry has hit back by releasing a list of 81 media outlets from 25 EU member states whose broadcasts would no longer be available inside Russia.

Moscow has in turn accused these outlets of "systematically distributinginaccurate information" about the war.

Among the outlets banned are Italian broadcasters Rai andLa7 and newspapers La Repubblica and La Stampa.

The Italian foreign ministry has condemned the decision, calling the measure against "objective and unbiased" reporting "unjustified".

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country's dream has been made "a reality" as membership talks between the EU and Ukraine begin.

Mr Zelenskyy said there had been "thousands of meetings and calls" between Kyiv's application for membership on the fifth day of the Ukraine war and today's conference in Luxembourg.

He also said Ukraine had worked to meet conditions imposed by the EU and enacted new laws to improve his country's standing.

Ukrainian Prime Minister DenysShmyhal said the start of EU accession talks was asignificant step towards a "shared victory".

Russia has launched 2,277 attack drones at Ukraine since the start of this year alone, Ukrainian air force commander Mykola Oleschuk has said.

Of these, 1,953 (86%) have been downed by Ukraine's anti-aircraft defences, he said.

Mr Oleschuk said "thousands of servicemen" are firing at Russian drones "almost every night".

"The enemy is constantly increasing attacks with a large number of air attack means - this is especially true of attack [drones]," he wrote in a Telegram post.

In another legal development today, a top European court has found Russia guilty of committing multiple human rights violations since it annexed the Crimean peninsula a decade ago.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said breaches included violations of the the right to life, theprohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment, freedom ofreligion and freedom of expression among others.

The ruling, on a case brought by Ukraine, ordered Moscow to "takemeasures as soon as possible for the safe return of the relevantprisoners transferred from Crimea to penal facilities located onthe territory of the Russian Federation".

The Strasbourg-based court earlier said the case was not concerned with whether the Crimea annexation was lawful under international law.

Russia said it would not comply with ECHR decisions issued after 15 March 2022, meaning the impact of the verdict could be limited.

Russian lender Sberbank has begun opening offices in occupied parts of the four Ukrainian regions it has illegally annexed.

The bank announced on Friday that it would open 46 offices during the week.

In 2022, Vladimir Putin signed laws absorbingDonetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia into Russia in a move rejected as a sham by Ukraine and the West.

Away from the ICC arrest warrants, the EU is officially launching membership talks with Ukraine today in what Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described as a "historic day" for his country.

Olga Stefanishyna, deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, will lead Ukraine's delegation at a conference in Luxembourg, which marks the official opening of the long-awaited talks.

There are several stages ahead in Ukraine's years-long effort to join the bloc, with membership, if it comes, potentially years away. Negotiations themselves are also unlikely to begin for several months.

But the launching of official talks sends a message of solidarity to Ukraine beyond the financial support provided by EU nations so far.

"Generations of our people are realising their European dream. Ukraine is returning to Europe," Mr Zelenskyy said in an online post.

Moldova, which applied for EU membership in the wake of Russia's invasion, will take part in a separate conference to launch its own accession process.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has welcomed the arrest warrants againstSergeiShoigu and Valery Gerasimov and said he wants to see them "behind bars".

In a post to social media, the Ukrainian president said the key Russian military figures were accused of being behind "barbaric" attacks against Ukraine's infrastructure.

"Every criminal involved in the planning and execution of these strikes must know that justice will be served. And we do hope to see them behind bars," he said.

Mr Zelenskyy said the decision by the International Criminal Court was a "clear indication that justice for Russian crimes against Ukrainians is inevitable".

"We look forward to more arrest warrants in order to deprive Russia of its sense of impunity. The feeling that has fuelled Russian crimes for decades. Accountability is the only way to put a stop to them," said the president.