International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants for Putin and his children’s commissioner
The Russian president and Maria Lwova-Belowa are accused of alleged war crimes. The decision is “historic” for Kiev and “void” for Moscow.
Allegedly responsible for the deportation of Ukrainian children: Vladimir Putin, here at an economic forum in Moscow. (March 16, 2023)
Photo: AFP
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. This was announced by the court in The Hague on Friday. Putin is allegedly responsible for the deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied territories to Russia. an appropriate one Prosecutor Karim Khan’s motion the judges granted the arrest warrant.
It is the first arrest warrant issued by the court in connection with alleged war crimes in Ukraine. The court also issued an arrest warrant for Maria Lwova-Belowa, the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights. She is also accused of war crimes in connection with the deportation of Ukrainian children.
Putin should be called to account as commander. The suspicion is justified that he insufficiently controlled his civilian or military subordinates. The exact text of the arrest warrants will not be released to protect victims and witnesses, the court said.
She is also accused of war crimes in connection with the deportation of Ukrainian children: Putin’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lwova-Belova.
Photo: AFP
However, it is unlikely that Putin will actually appear before the court in The Hague. Russia does not recognize the court. The spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said in a press conference on possible arrest warrants against Russians on Thursday: “Russia does not cooperate with the organ. And possible detention “recipes” that emanate from the International Court are legally void for us.” The court’s decisions have no meaning for Russia. Furthermore, the court may not conduct trials in the absence of the accused.
Although Ukraine has not ratified the Rome Statute of the International Court of Justice, Kyiv recognizes the jurisdiction of judges for crimes against humanity and war crimes against Ukraine committed on Ukrainian territory since 2014. In 2015, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin issued a statement to this effect in The Hague. Shortly after the outbreak of the war, Chief Prosecutor Khan had already started investigations in Ukraine.
Russian foreign politician: “outrageous”
In Russia, the prominent foreign politician Leonid Slutsky reacted with horror to the arrest warrant. “Such allegations are simply outrageous, they don’t even fall under the definition of “absurd”, said Sluzki on Friday shortly after the news from The Hague became known.
Until then, Russian news agencies had not even reported on the arrest warrant. Slutsky, who chairs the State Duma’s Foreign Affairs Committee, was one of the first politicians to step out of cover.
Sluzki said that the court in The Hague was allowing itself to be politically instrumentalized by the West and was now showing itself through this step. Legally, this has no meaning for Russia because Moscow does not recognize the court. It is about a “propagandistic effect in the West”. Rather, the court should issue an arrest warrant for “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his gang” and his “Western protectors”. “They are the real war criminals.”
Independent Russian media commented that the arrest warrant may limit Putin’s ability to travel. Many countries, including Russia’s allies, recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and have ratified the relevant statute. “In the event that Putin visits one of these countries, the local authorities will have to arrest him,” lawyer Sergei Golubok told the MO portal.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said about the arrest warrant: “We consider the wording of the question to be outrageous and unacceptable.” Russia does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court. “Accordingly, decisions of this kind are irrelevant for Russia from a legal point of view,” Peskov said, according to the Russian state news agency Tass.
Peskov declined to comment on whether an imminent arrest of the Kremlin chief in countries that recognize the court could affect Putin’s travel plans, Russian agencies said. “I have nothing more to say on the subject.”
Kyiv: «a historic decision»
The Kiev leadership has welcomed the Criminal Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Advisor to the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mikhailo Podoliak, said on Friday that the decision from The Hague was “a clear signal to the (Russian) elites what will happen to them and why it will not be ‘like before'”. Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andri Yermak, said the step was “just the beginning”.
The Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba also welcomed the decision. “International criminals will be held accountable for child theft and other international crimes.”
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andri Kostin said in online media: “The world has 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. “World leaders will now think three times before shaking hands with him (Putin) or sitting down with him at the negotiating table,” Kostin said.
The United Nations has avoided a direct response to the arrest warrant. The spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, only emphasized on Friday that Putin was not persona non grata for the UN chief because of the decision: “The Secretary-General will always speak to anyone who needs to speak to.” . Dujarric went on to say that the International Criminal Court and the United Nations are separate organizations.
UN speaks of “crimes against humanity”
The UN has also sharpened its stance towards Russia and, in connection with the war in Ukraine, is speaking of “crimes against humanity” for the first time. An independent United Nations commission of experts visited 56 crime-affected Ukrainian towns and villages, inspected destroyed houses and graves, former illegal prisons and torture sites, collected documents, videos and satellite images and spoke to almost 600 victims.
Investigators uncovered numerous Russian war crimes, including murder and mass deaths from bombing, torture, rape, illegal detention and trafficking of potentially hundreds of thousands of children to Russia. The bombing and siege of the port city of Mariupol, in which thousands of people are believed to have died, may be a “crime against humanity” – the highest crime category in international law.
The systematic use of torture against a number of Ukrainians is also a possible crime against humanity. The same applies to the attacks on civilian electricity and communications facilities officially ordered by Putin on October 10, 2022, which have continued to this day, leaving millions of people without electricity, heating, water, food, health care or telephones in the winter and an unknown number of people died. So far, the investigators have only spoken of possible crimes against humanity, for example because they had no access to Mariupol and consider further investigations to be necessary.
In contrast, the investigators found only a few cases of Ukrainian war crimes: In two cases, it was documented that Ukrainian units had tortured or shot captured Russian soldiers. Ukrainian units have also repeatedly used so-called butterfly mines shot down with rockets against Russian units.
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