US President Biden believes the ICC arrest warrant against Putin is justified. The IMF has changed the rules in favor of a loan program for Ukraine. All developments in the live blog.
2:53 a.m
Biden: ICC arrest warrant against Putin justified
US President Joe Biden sees the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for war crimes in Ukraine against Russian President Vladimir Putin as justified. “Well, I think the decision is justified,” Biden told reporters. The ICC has very strong arguments.
The US State Department said the US had also come to the conclusion that Russian forces had committed war crimes in Ukraine and that the perpetrators should be held accountable. The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court made his decision independently on the basis of the facts before him.
2:53 a.m
IMF changes rules in favor of a loan program for Ukraine
The International Monetary Fund has changed its rules to allow the IMF to approve lending programs for countries facing “extraordinarily high levels of uncertainty”. The changes to the IMF’s lending policy rules would apply to countries “exposed to exogenous shocks that are beyond the control of the country’s authorities and the reach of its economic policies,” the IMF said in a statement.
The move paves the way for a new lending program for Ukraine. The country is seeking an IMF financing package worth around $15 billion. The rules of the International Monetary Fund, which are designed to deal with economic crises in individual countries, have so far not allowed such loans for countries that are exposed to massive uncertainties due to major wars or repeated natural disasters as a result of climate change.