Vladimir Putin was seen limping while making a surprise visit to Crimea amid claims he is suffering from ill health, a day after a war crimes arrest warrant was issued for the Russian leader.
The 70-year-old defied the West and arrived in annexed Crimea today, Russian media reports said.
The footage appeared to show Putin at the Sevastopol naval port, which has come under repeated Ukrainian attacks in recent months.
His arrival came a day after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him on war crimes charges.
Today marks the ninth anniversary of their illegal annexation of Crimea.
Vladimir Putin was seen limping while making a surprise visit to Crimea amid claims he is suffering from ill health, a day after a war crimes arrest warrant was issued for the Russian leader.
The 70-year-old defied the West and arrived in annexed Crimea today, Russian media reports said.
The footage appeared to show the dictator in the Sevastopol naval port, which has come under repeated Ukrainian attacks in recent months.
Putin was seen with his aide Mikhail Razvozhayev, the governor of occupied Sevastopol, surrounded by six bulky bodyguards evidently wearing bulletproof vests.
The 70-year-old leader appeared uncomfortable as he walked in contrast to appearances earlier this week in Moscow and the Siberian city of Ulan-Ude.
Evidently, he arrived at the port, home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, in a black Toyota Land Cruiser.
Also with him was Orthodox Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov, Putin’s personal confessor who compared the dictator to Czar Peter the Great.
Putin was seen with his aide Mikhail Razvozhayev, the governor of occupied Sevastopol, surrounded by six bulky bodyguards evidently wearing bulletproof vests.
“Our President Vladimir Putin knows how to surprise in a good way,” said the governor.
He was scheduled to appear via video conference but made an unexpected appearance on the disputed peninsula, said the governor, who is not recognized by the West.
‘Vladimir Vladimirovich came in person, driving.
‘Because on such a historic day, the president is always with Sebastopol and the residents of Sebastopol. Our country has an incredible leader.’
The International Criminal Court on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for his barbaric invasion of Ukraine.
The ICC called for Putin’s arrest as the court accused the despot of illegally kidnapping Ukrainian children from their homes and deporting them to Russia to give them to Russian families. Pictured: Ukrainian children board a train from the Donbas region of Ukraine to Russia on February 22, 2022.
A Ukrainian police officer takes cover in front of a burning building that came under Russian airstrike in Avdiivka, Ukraine, on Friday.
Also with him was Orthodox Bishop Tikhon Shevkunov, Putin’s personal confessor who compared the dictator to Czar Peter the Great.
Putin was seen near others in Sevastopol, unlike other appearances, especially on Friday when he addressed oligarchs and business leaders from a distance.
The trip came amid claims in some quarters that Putin suffers from health problems and uses body doubles -doppelgängers- for some appearances during the war that broke out a year ago in Ukraine.
Putin was seen visiting the Korsun Children’s Center in Sevastopol.
It is his first visit to the annexed peninsula in three years.
The International Criminal Court yesterday issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin amid accusations of war crimes during his faltering invasion of Ukraine.
Karim Khan, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, said hundreds of children have been illegally taken from orphanages and children’s homes in occupied areas of Ukraine and transported to Russia to be handed over to new families.
Putin has become the third sitting president to receive an ICC arrest warrant, after Omar al-Bashir of Sudan and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, and the first leader of one of the five permanent members of the Security Council of the ONU.
The ICC order now obliges its 123 member states to arrest the Russian president and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he steps on their territory.
But the Kremlin today criticized the court’s decision as “shocking and unacceptable”, insisting instead that any ICC decision is “null and void” with respect to Russia, as Moscow does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction.