Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in the Netherlands on Thursday for a surprise visit to the city that's home to the International Criminal Court, which has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zelensky's visit to The Hague, which hosts the ICC and the United Nations' top judicial organ, the International Court of Justice, came a day after he denied that Ukrainian forces were responsible for what the Kremlin called an attempt to assassinate Putin in a drone attack, per the AP. On a visit to Helsinki on Wednesday, Zelensky told reporters: "We didn't attack Putin. We leave it to [the] tribunal." While Zelensky's visit to the ICC wasn't officially confirmed, the court's staff on Thursday raised a Ukrainian flag next to its own flag outside the building.
Ukraine's Air Force Command said early Thursday that Russian forces attacked multiple Ukrainian regions overnight with Iranian-made drones. Air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine overnight and explosions were reported in the southern city of Odesa and the capital, Kyiv. Ukraine's military said that in Odesa, three drones—inscribed "For Moscow" and "For the Kremlin," referencing Wednesday's alleged attack—hit a dorm of an educational facility, but there were no casualties. Kyiv was targeted with drones and missiles, its military administration said, in what's a third airborne attack on the capital in four days. All of them were shot down. Against that backdrop of violence, Zelensky is visiting The Hague, which calls itself the international city of peace and justice.
The ICC has accused Putin of the unlawful deportation and transfer of children to Russia from occupied areas of Ukraine. But it doesn't have a police force to execute warrants, and the Russian president is unlikely to travel to any of the ICC's 123 member states that are under an obligation to arrest him if they can. Still, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan has made repeated visits to Ukraine and is setting up an office in Kyiv to facilitate his ongoing investigations in the country. And though the ICC doesn't have jurisdiction to prosecute Putin for the crime of aggression—the unlawful invasion of another sovereign country—the Dutch government has offered to host a court that could be established to prosecute the crime, and an office is being established to gather evidence. (More Volodymyr Zelensky stories.)
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