The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has said that Mongolia’s refusal to arrest Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, who is wanted on an international arrest warrant, is a serious blow to the international criminal justice system.

Putin arrived in Mongolia on Monday, where talks are expected to take place on a new gas pipeline between Russia and China.

An arrest warrant issued against Putin by the International Criminal Court last year obliges the court’s 124 member states, including Mongolia, to arrest the Russian president and hand him over to The Hague for trial if he enters their territory.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyi said Mongolia’s refusal to arrest Putin was “a serious blow to the International Criminal Court and the criminal justice system.”

“Mongolia has allowed an accused criminal to evade justice and thus bears responsibility for war crimes,” he wrote on the messaging app Telegram. Ukraine will work with its allies to ensure that Mongolia faces the consequences, he said.

Ukraine last week called on Mongolia to arrest Putin during his visit.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow had no concerns about any measures related to the arrest warrant. Russia was conducting a “great dialogue” with Mongolia and all aspects of the visit had been discussed in advance.

The ICC arrest warrant accuses Putin of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. The Kremlin denies the accusation, saying it is politically motivated.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said he met with his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu on Monday to discuss the situation at the front and air defense.

Umerov said on Facebook that officials from the Ukrainian General Staff had informed Lecornu about the situation on the battlefield and the most urgent needs of the Kiev troops in the fight against the Russian invasion.

Joint ventures in the arms industry were also discussed, he added.

Russia has announced that it will change the doctrine that defines the circumstances under which it could use nuclear weapons.

The current doctrine was outlined by President Vladimir Putin in a six-page decree in June 2020. It states, among other things: “The Russian Federation reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in response to the use of nuclear weapons and other types of weapons of mass destruction against itself or (or) its allies, as well as in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation with conventional weapons, when the very existence of the state is threatened.”

Because this risk is not explicitly defined, Putin has been able to issue thinly veiled threats that he would use Russia’s nuclear arsenal to prevent any direct Western response to his deployment of troops to Ukraine in February 2022.

Putin’s arms control representative, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, said on Sunday that the planned changes were “related to the escalation course of our Western opponents” in connection with the Ukraine conflict. He did not mention any specific events. The public debate about the nuclear doctrine has been going on for more than a year and intensified this year after French President Emmanuel Macron raised the possibility – rejected by NATO allies – of sending Western troops to Ukraine.

While children across Ukraine are returning to school for the start of the school year, in Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, they have only been able to do so in an underground school due to Russian bombing.

Since the start of the large-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, schools in Kharkiv have been teaching their children online. During the ensuing war, the northeastern city was close to the fighting fronts.

Only one school in Kharkiv, built in an underground metro station in May 2024, offers face-to-face teaching.

On Monday, the traditional first day of school celebrations, common in Ukraine and other post-Soviet states, took place. Parents brought bouquets of flowers and children came in their best clothes.

“We brought them here because we thought it would be safe and our children would not have to be afraid of rockets and attacks,” says Tetiana Hubina, mother of a school-age child.

“You are safe here,” she said.

A Russian attack on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv hit a residential area and injured at least 13 people on Monday, local authorities said.

The region’s governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said in a televised address that four guided bombs hit garages near residential buildings. Mayor Ihor Terekhov added that a private house and a sports complex were damaged.

A 60-year-old woman and a 40-year-old man are in critical condition, Syniehubov said.

The number of attacks on Ukraine’s second-largest city and the surrounding region appeared to be declining after Kyiv launched a major offensive on Russia’s western Kursk region on August 6.

But in recent days, Kharkiv has again been hit by Russian attacks.

On Friday, an attack hit a residential building, killing seven people and injuring 97. On Sunday, at least 50 people were injured when Russian missiles struck a shopping and entertainment center.

The allied countries’ business is expected to see a boost with the entry into force of the UK-Ukraine Digital Trade Agreement (DTA).

Ukraine was one of the world’s largest exporters of IT services. Before the war, areas such as outsourcing, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI) and mobile applications experienced rapid development.

Two U.S. researchers say they have identified the likely deployment location of Russia’s 9M370 Burevestnik, a new nuclear-powered cruise missile that President Vladimir Putin has touted as “invincible.”

Putin has said the weapon – dubbed the SSC-X-9 Skyfall by NATO – has a nearly unlimited range and can evade US missile defenses. But some Western experts dispute his claims and the Burevestnik’s strategic value, saying it will not give Moscow any capabilities it does not already have and that there is a risk of a radioactive incident.

Using images taken on July 26 by Planet Labs, a commercial satellite company, the two researchers identified a construction project next to a nuclear warhead storage facility known by two names – Vologda-20 and Chebsara – as a possible deployment site for the new missile, Reuters reported. The facility is located 475 kilometers north of Moscow.

Decker Eveleth, an analyst at the research and analysis organization CNA, found the satellite images and identified nine horizontal launch pads that he said are under construction. They are arranged in three groups within high walls to protect them from attack or to prevent an accidental explosion in one from detonating missiles in the others, he said.

The walls are connected by roads to buildings where, according to Eveleth, the missiles and their components could be serviced, as well as to the existing complex of five storage bunkers for nuclear warheads.

The site is “for a large, fixed missile system, and the only large, fixed missile system they (Russia) are currently developing is Skyfall,” Eveleth said.

Neither the Russian Defense Ministry nor the embassy in Washington responded to requests for comment on its assessment, the strategic value of the Burevestnik, its test results and the risks it poses.

A Kremlin spokesman said these were questions for the Defense Ministry and declined further comment.