Russia-Ukraine war live: Biden backs Putin arrest warrant, saying Russian leader ‘clearly committed war crimes’

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Russia likely to widen conscription to boost military, says UK MoD

Russia will probably introduce wider conscription to boost its military requirements, the UK Ministry of Defence says.

In its latest intelligence update, the ministry said that deputies in the Russian Duma on on Monday introduced a bill to change the conscription age for men to 21-30, from the current 18-27. The law would likely be passed, it said, and come into force in January 2024.

The ministry said:

The Russian authorities are likely preparing to facilitate wider military conscription to resource its military requirements.

…. Many 18-21 year old men currently claim exemption from the draft due to being in higher education. The authorities are highly likely changing the age bracket to bolster troop numbers by ensuring that students are eventually forced to serve.

The ministry said Russia continued to officially bar conscripts from operations in Ukraine, although “at least hundreds have probably served through administrative mix-ups or after being coerced to sign contracts”.

Even if Russia continues to refrain from deploying conscripts in the war, extra conscripts will free up a greater proportion of professional soldiers to fight.

Russia runs conscription call-up cycles twice a year, apart from its “partial mobilisation” last year.

The international criminal court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin obligates the court’s 123 member states to arrest the Russian president and transfer him to The Hague, Netherlands, for trial if he sets foot on their territory.

The court also issued a warrant on Friday for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, on the same charges alleging war crimes.

Agence France-Presse also reported that a US-backed report by Yale University researchers last month said Russia had held at least 6,000 Ukrainian children in at least 43 camps and other facilities as part of a “large-scale systematic network”.

Russia has denied its forces have committed atrocities during the war, while the Kremlin said the arrest warrant against Putin was outrageous and “null and void” for Russia.

ICC sources said they thought it was now “very unlikely” Putin would travel to any country currently supporting Ukraine, and that if he did so he risked arrest.

The international criminal court in The Hague. Photograph: Pierre Crom/Getty Images

Biden says Putin arrest warrant 'justified'

Joe Biden has said Vladimir Putin clearly committed war crimes and that the international criminal court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for the Russian leader makes a “very strong point”.

“Well, I think it’s justified,” the US president said on Friday of the warrant.

But the question is – it’s not recognised internationally by us either. But I think it makes a very strong point.

The US is not a member of the international criminal court (ICC) and the Pentagon has resisted cooperating with it out of fears American soldiers could potentially be pursued by the court.

The ICC decision, over allegations Putin has overseen the abduction of Ukrainian children, marks the first time the court has issued a warrant against one of the five permanent members of the UN security council.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, hailed the court’s move, saying on social media it was “a historic decision from which historic responsibility will begin”.

Opening summary

Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war. This is Adam Fulton bringing you the latest developments.

The US president, Joe Biden, says Vladimir Putin has “clearly committed war crimes” and that the international criminal court is “justified” in issuing an arrest warrant for the Russian president.

The court called on Friday for Putin’s arrest over allegations of overseeing the abduction of Ukrainian children and unlawful transfer of people from Ukraine to Russia during the war.

Moscow said the arrest warrant was “meaningless” and legally “void” because it did not recognise the court’s jurisdiction.

More on that story soon.

In other developments as it approaches 9am in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv:

• Russia is sustaining up to 1,500 casualties a day in its current offensive, mostly in the eastern city of Bakhmut, according to a senior Nato official. Ukraine was taking “an order of magnitude less” in fighting where “several thousand” shells a day have been fired by both sides, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

• China’s President Xi Jinping is to visit Russia next week in an apparent show of support for Vladimir Putin. During the visit, scheduled for 20-22 March, the two leaders would sign “important” bilateral documents and discuss issues of further development of comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction between Moscow and Beijing, the Chinese foreign ministry has said.

• The US has deep concerns that China could try to position itself as a peacemaker in the war in Ukraine by promoting a ceasefire, the White House has said. A ceasefire in Ukraine would “in effect recognise Russia’s gains and its attempt to conquer its neighbour’s territory by force, allowing Russian troops to continue to occupy sovereign Ukrainian territory”, said the White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby.

• President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey would start the process of ratifying Finland’s Nato membership bid in parliament after Helsinki took “authentic and concrete steps” to keep its promises in a trilateral agreement. Erdoğan also said Turkey’s willingness to consider ratifying Sweden’s Nato bid would “depend on the solid steps Sweden will take”.

President Erdoğan beside his Finnish counterpart, Sauli Niinisto, in Ankara on Friday. Photograph: Burhan Özbilici/AP

• Sweden remained confident it would join Nato, the foreign minister said. Tobias Billström said separate ratification of Finland and Sweden’s bids by Ankara was “a development that we didn’t want but it’s something that we’re prepared for”.

• Slovakia will donate 13 MiG-29 warplanes to Ukraine, its prime minister has said. Eduard Heger told a news conference his government was “on the right side of history” as Slovakia became the second Nato member to announce such a shipment in 24 hours, after a similar move by Poland. The Kremlin said the promised planes were another example of Nato members “raising the level of their direct involvement in the conflict”, adding that “all this equipment will be subject to destruction”.

• Talks are in progress on the renewal of an agreement allowing the safe export of grain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, the UN’s office in Geneva has said. The Black Sea grain initiative, brokered between Russia and Ukraine by the UN and Turkey last July, is due to expire on Saturday. The UN, Ukraine and Turkey have called for a 120-day rollover of the agreement. Russia has said the deal should be renewed for only 60 days.

• Kyiv’s wartime curfew will be reduced by an hour to boost business. The head of Kyiv city administration, Serhiy Popko, said the new curfew period – starting at midnight instead of 11pm – would increase the time for public transport and that reducing its duration “should help reduce social tension, increase production, create new jobs”.

• Russia’s defence secretary, Sergei Shoigu, has presented state awards to the pilots of the Su-27 planes involved in the drone incident over the Black Sea for “preventing the violation of the borders of the special operation area by the American MQ-9 Reaper drone”.

• Moldova’s president has said she sees no danger of war in her countries while Ukraine continues to dig in against Russia. “The Russian army cannot get here while Ukraine holds out – and [therefore] protects Moldova,” Maia Sandu told the Moldovan parliament.