'I'd take Putin,' UK Defense Sec says when asked which world leader he'd most like to kidnap
Given the option of being able to kidnap any world leader, U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey told the Kyiv Independent he would "take (Russian President Vladimir) Putin into custody and hold him account for war crimes.”
Speaking on Jan. 9 at the site of a fatal drone strike on a high-rise residential building in Kyiv overnight, Healey said those war crimes included "what I saw in Bucha on one of my first visits to Ukraine," and for "the abduction of some of the Ukrainian kids that I met in Irpin."
While largely hypothetical just a week ago, U.S. President Donald Trump's audacious capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro has strained if not broken the international rules-based order and thrown open the possibility of other nations following suit.
Bucha, a suburb northwest of Kyiv, became a symbol of Russian war crimes after mass graves were uncovered in April 2022 following its liberation by Ukrainian troops.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office has documented over 1,400 civilian killings in the Bucha District, including 637 in Bucha itself. Among the victims were 37 children.
Additionally, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March 2023 over Moscow's illegal deportation of civilians, including children, from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia.
Pointing to the drone-damaged building behind him, Healey said it "tells you all you need to know about President Putin and his determination not just to wage a war on Ukraine, but to target civilians, cities, the infrastructure that people absolutely critically depend on in the middle of winter."
"This is a man whomust be stopped. This is a war that must be stopped. And our mission is to support Ukraine in its fight today and to help work to secure the peace for the moment," he added.
Russia pounded Ukraine with missiles and drones overnight on Jan. 8-9, killing at least four people and injuring 24 others in Kyiv and knocking out electricity for hundreds of thousands while disrupting heat supplies as temperatures fell.
A paramedic was among those killed as a result of a double-tap strike, and 16 of the 24 wounded were hospitalized, Kyiv officials said.
The medic was identified as Serhii Smoliak, 56, who worked at the city’s Center for Emergency Medical Aid and Disaster Medicine.
As temperatures plunge well below freezing in Ukraine, running water and electricity were disrupted in parts of Ukraine's capital as a result of Russian strikes on critical infrastructure, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. DTEK's press service said 417,000 households were disconnected from electricity.
Klitschko later said nearly half of Kyiv’s apartment buildings — almost 6,000 — were without heat due to damage to critical infrastructure, and that there were also disruptions to the city’s water supply.
"I also appeal to the residents of the capital who have the opportunity to temporarily leave the city, where there are alternative sources of power and heat, to do so," Klitschko added.
