The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
The warrant was issued over Putin’s suspected involvement in the unlawful deportation of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia.
‘There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the child abductions’.
The ICC also issued a warrant for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for children’s rights in the office of the Russian president.
Russia rejected the ICC’s move. ‘The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view’, said Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
‘Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it.’
ICC President Piotr Hofmanski, however, said it was ‘completely irrelevant’ that Russia had not ratified the Rome Statute.
The ICC statute has 123 state parties and thus the court has jurisdiction over crimes committed in the territory of a state party or a state which has accepted its jurisdiction.
Forty-three states have referred the issue to the court, which formally triggered its action. The court’s jurisdiction includes crimes committed from 2013.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin hailed the ICC’s announcement. ‘The world received a signal that the Russian regime is criminal, and its leadership and henchmen will be held accountable. This is a historic decision for Ukraine and the entire system of international law.’
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed Putin for the deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children: ‘This is a historic decision which will lead to historic accountability’, he said. The number of deported children could be more than 16,000.
Putin could be arrested and sent to The Hague if he travels to any ICC member states.