By Anthony Deutsch&nbsp;and&nbsp;Mike Collett-White
AMSTERSDAM/NEAR KREMINNA,&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;(Reuters)&nbsp;-The&nbsp;International&nbsp;Criminal&nbsp;Court&nbsp;is&nbsp;expected&nbsp;to&nbsp;seek&nbsp;the&nbsp;arrest&nbsp;of&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;officials&nbsp;for&nbsp;forcibly&nbsp;deporting&nbsp;children&nbsp;from&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;and&nbsp;targeting&nbsp;civilian&nbsp;infrastructure, a&nbsp;source&nbsp;said on Monday, in&nbsp;what&nbsp;would&nbsp;be the&nbsp;first&nbsp;international&nbsp;war&nbsp;crimes&nbsp;cases&nbsp;arising&nbsp;from&nbsp;Moscow's&nbsp;invasion.
The&nbsp;source&nbsp;said the&nbsp;arrest&nbsp;warrants could include the crime of genocide,&nbsp;and&nbsp;were&nbsp;expected&nbsp;to arrive in the "short term" if the&nbsp;court&nbsp;prosecutor's request was approved by a pre-trial judge at the Hague-based&nbsp;court. It was unclear which&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;officials&nbsp;the prosecutor might&nbsp;seek&nbsp;warrants against.
The office of the prosecutor at the&nbsp;ICC&nbsp;declined to comment.
Russia's&nbsp;defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Moscow&nbsp;would&nbsp;be certain to reject any&nbsp;arrest&nbsp;warrants against any of its&nbsp;officials. But an&nbsp;international&nbsp;war&nbsp;crimes&nbsp;prosecution could deepen Moscow's diplomatic isolation&nbsp;and&nbsp;make it difficult for those accused to travel abroad.
Konstantin Kosachyov, deputy speaker of&nbsp;Russia's&nbsp;upper house of parliament, said the&nbsp;ICC&nbsp;had no jurisdiction over the country since Moscow withdrew its backing in 2016. "The&nbsp;ICC&nbsp;is an instrument of neo-colonialism in the hands of the West," he said.
Russia denies deliberately&nbsp;targeting&nbsp;civilian&nbsp;infrastructure&nbsp;in&nbsp;Ukraine, saying its attacks are all intended to reduce Kyiv's ability to fight. It has not concealed a programme under which it has brought thousands of Ukrainian&nbsp;children&nbsp;to Russia, but presents it as a humanitarian campaign to protect orphans&nbsp;and&nbsp;children&nbsp;abandoned in the conflict zone.
Kyiv says thousands of deported Ukrainian&nbsp;children&nbsp;are being adopted into&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;families, housed in&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;camps&nbsp;and&nbsp;orphanages, given&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;passports&nbsp;and&nbsp;brought up to reject Ukrainian nationality.
The U.N. genocide convention defines "forcibly&nbsp;transferring&nbsp;children&nbsp;of the group to another group" as one of five acts that can be prosecuted as genocide. Asked if the&nbsp;ICC&nbsp;charges against the&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;officials&nbsp;could include genocide, the&nbsp;source&nbsp;said: "It looks that way."
'THERE IS A LOT OF ARTILLERY'
On the ground, both sides described relentless fighting in&nbsp;and&nbsp;around Bakhmut, a small ruined city in eastern&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;that has become the main focus of a&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;winter campaign.
Near Kreminna, north of Bakhmut, Ukrainian soldiers said they were repelling intensified attacks by increasingly professional soldiers, while heavy equipment was being brought closer to the frontline by the&nbsp;Russians.
In a forest some 8 km (5 miles)&nbsp;from&nbsp;the front, cannons boomed,&nbsp;targeting&nbsp;enemy positions to the northeast. Explosions rumbled constantly in the distance, a sign of heavy fighting.
Reuters&nbsp;reporters saw a soldier being brought&nbsp;from&nbsp;the front with a badly wounded leg. He was stabilised in a van with a splint&nbsp;and&nbsp;painkillers before being taken to a medical centre further&nbsp;from&nbsp;the front.
"Two or three weeks ago the fighting was at its peak but it has calmed down a bit," said Mykhailo Anest, a 35-year-old medic. "There is a lot of artillery&nbsp;and&nbsp;mortar fire."
On a bad day he&nbsp;would&nbsp;see 20 wounded troops in a single day&nbsp;from&nbsp;his battalion, he&nbsp;told&nbsp;Reuters.
The months-long fight for Bakhmut has become Europe's bloodiest infantry battle since World&nbsp;War&nbsp;Two.
Russian&nbsp;forces led by the Wagner private army have captured the city's eastern part but so far failed to encircle it.
"All enemy attempts to capture the town are repelled by artillery, tanks,&nbsp;and&nbsp;other firepower,"&nbsp;Ukraine's Colonel general Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of ground forces who has vowed not to withdraw, was quoted as saying by&nbsp;Ukraine's Media Military Centre.
Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Sunday the situation was "tough, very tough".
Moscow says taking it&nbsp;would&nbsp;be a major success, opening a path to capture the rest of the surrounding Donetsk region, a central&nbsp;war&nbsp;aim.
Kyiv says it has decided not to pull out because it is inflicting huge losses on the&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;assault force which will make it easier to stage a counterattack later this year.
CHINA DIPLOMACY
As the fighting ground on in eastern&nbsp;Ukraine, Moscow appeared on the cusp of one long-sought diplomatic breakthrough: several&nbsp;sources&nbsp;told&nbsp;Reuters&nbsp;that China's President Xi Jinping could visit Russia as soon as next week, an earlier-than-expected&nbsp;response to a long-standing invitation.
The Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Kremlin said it had nothing to announce yet.
President Vladimir Putin has touted such a visit as a show of support, but it could be overshadowed by plans for Xi to speak by video link to&nbsp;Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for the&nbsp;first&nbsp;time since the&nbsp;invasion.
The plans for talks between Zelenskiy&nbsp;and&nbsp;Xi were reported by the Wall Street Journal.&nbsp;Reuters&nbsp;could not immediately confirm them&nbsp;and&nbsp;Ukraine's president's office did not immediately respond.
A visit by Xi to Russia&nbsp;would&nbsp;be a major event for Putin, who portrays the&nbsp;war&nbsp;in&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;as a conflict with the combined might of the West. Russia relies on China to buy oil&nbsp;and&nbsp;gas it can no longer sell in Europe.
But a video meeting with Zelenskiy could be an even bigger coup for the Ukrainians, who want Beijing to remain neutral rather than firm up support for Moscow.
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan&nbsp;told&nbsp;reporters aboard Air Force One that&nbsp;Ukraine&nbsp;had not confirmed a call between Xi&nbsp;and&nbsp;Zelenskiy.
Sullivan said Washington has been publicly&nbsp;and&nbsp;privately encouraging Xi to talk to Zelenskiy so that they hear "not just the&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;perspective" on the&nbsp;war.
China has declined to ascribe blame for the&nbsp;war&nbsp;while opposing Western sanctions against Russia. It unveiled a proposal in February for a peace plan, met with scepticism in the West but praised in Moscow&nbsp;and&nbsp;cautiously welcomed by Zelenskiy.
China&nbsp;and&nbsp;Russia struck a "no limits" partnership in February of 2022, weeks before Russia invaded&nbsp;Ukraine,&nbsp;and&nbsp;the two sides have reaffirmed the strength of their ties in public.
($1 = 0.9396 euros)
(Reporting by&nbsp;Reuters&nbsp;bureaus; Writing by Peter Graff&nbsp;and&nbsp;Alex Richardson; Editing by Philippa Fletcher&nbsp;and&nbsp;Alison Williams)

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