DThe Ukrainian capital Kiev was once again rocked by explosions early on Sunday morning. The air defense system is in use, drones are flying towards Kiev, wrote Mayor Vitali Klitschko on Telegram. Debris fell in several districts. Some would burn in streets. A person was injured. No buildings were damaged. The fire brigade and rescue services are on duty.
According to Ukrainian sources, Kiev and the surrounding area are repeatedly attacked from the air by the Russian army, often using drones.
Russia holds regional elections – sham elections in occupied Ukraine
Overshadowed by allegations of fraud, Russia is holding regional elections in dozens of regions. Until Sunday evening, people in 22 areas can cast their votes in the gubernatorial election and in 16 areas in the regional parliament election. In the capital Moscow, incumbent Sergei Sobyanin from the Kremlin party United Russia is likely to secure another term in office in the mayoral election.
Independent observers registered numerous violations in the first days of the vote. According to experts, the polls are considered to be the least free since the beginning of Vladimir Putin’s era in Russia around 24 years ago. Since the beginning of the war, the repression of dissidents has increased massively in the largest country in the world in terms of area under the leadership of President Putin. Many opposition figures critical of the Kremlin are now either in prison camps or have fled abroad.
The Kremlin has now also scheduled mock elections in the four Ukrainian regions annexed by Russia: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson. The results of these ballots organized by the occupying power are not internationally recognized.
Kiev: West too hesitant to set up tribunal against Putin
Ukraine has complained about the hesitancy of its Western allies in taking legal action against Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and in dealing with frozen Russian assets. On both issues, the negotiations were “at a kind of impasse,” said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in a speech published on Saturday evening.
There are “differences of opinion” with allies on the issue of establishing a new court to try Putin for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. On the issue of transferring Russian assets to Ukraine, there is a “lack of will” on the part of the partners, said Kuleba in the speech delivered at an international conference in Kiev.
The International Criminal Court (ICC), based in The Hague, issued an arrest warrant against Putin last March. The arrest warrant relates to the abduction of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia as a result of the war in Ukraine.
However, Ukraine is also calling for the establishment of a new international court to prosecute Putin and other members of the Russian leadership. This court is intended to be modeled on the Nuremberg Criminal Court, where trials of Nazi war criminals took place after the Second World War.
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