Kyiv Post Daily Thread – The Latest News From and About Ukraine on March 17

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian president Vladimir Putin for the "unlawful deportation" of Ukrainian children.

Putin "is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation."

The ICC said the crimes dated from February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. "There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes," it said.

Read the full story here.

The United States opposes Chinese calls for a ceasefire in Ukraine, saying this would simply consolidate "Russian conquest" and give the Kremlin a chance to prepare for a new offensive, a White House spokesman said Friday.

"We don't support calls for a ceasefire right now," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters ahead of next week's visit to Moscow by Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The Kremlin on Friday praised China's "restrained" position on Ukraine ahead of next week's summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and China's leader Xi Jinping.

"Of course, the Ukraine conflict will be discussed. We highly value the restrained, considered position of the Chinese leadership on this issue," the Kremlin's foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies.

Kyiv’s curfew is set to be shortened by an hour from March 26, according to a report from the Kyiv City Military Administration's (KCMA) press service on Friday.

Currently in place from 23:00 to 05:00, the new restrictions will last from 00:00 to 05:00.

Read the full story here.

Slovakia will donate 13 MiG-29 warplanes to Ukraine, the Slovak prime minister said Friday, making it the second NATO member to announce such a shipment following a similar move by Poland.

“We will hand over 13 of our MiG-29 jets to Ukraine,” Slovak premier Eduard Heger told journalists, adding that Bratislava would also deliver a Kub air defence system to Ukraine.

FInd out how the Kremlon has reacted here. 

Crouched in a small forest, the leader of a Ukrainian commando unit briefs his troops before their mission to counter Russia's offensive to capture the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.

The special forces aim to defend the nearby village of Grygorivka in the Donetsk region, about 10 kilometers (six miles) northwest of Bakhmut, which is coming under heavy Russian shelling.

If Moscow's soldiers and the Russian mercenary group Wagner take the village, it would help them to close pincers around Bakhmut, the center of the longest and bloodiest battle of the invasion.

"We're defending positions on the heights near the village. Our mission is to stop the enemy attack and provide artillery support for our infantry," the commando chief tells AFP, declining to give his name.

Read the full report here. 

As the political fallout and blame game sparked by the collision between a U.S. drone and a Russian fighter jet continues, Washington has released a video of what it described as the “unsafe” and “unprofessional” intercept.