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This afternoon, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin. At issue is the alleged deportation of Ukrainian children. The Hague court also issued an arrest warrant against the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights. Moscow has already reacted and denounced a “insignificant” and “meaningless” decision.
“Today, March 17, 2023, the Preliminary Chamber of the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against two persons within the current situation in Ukraine: Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Mary Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova“ the Presidential Commissioner for the Rights of the Child in Russia, announced the ICC in a statement.
According to the International Criminal Court, Putin “is presumably responsible for the war crime of illegally deporting population (children) and illegally transferring population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation”this entity explaining that “the crimes will have been committed in occupied Ukrainian territory since at least February 24, 2022”.
In this sense, according to the ICC, there are “reasonable grounds to believe that Vladimir Putin is personally responsible for the aforementioned crimes”.
Reacting to this announcement, Moscow through the spokeswoman for diplomacy Russian Maria Zakharova considered that “The decisions of the International Criminal Court are meaningless for Russia, including from a legal point of view.”
Recalling that her country is not covered by the Rome Statute that officially established the International Criminal Court in 2002, this responsible Russian mentioned that Moscow “uncooperative” with the Court.
On the other hand, in Ukraine, a country that is also not a member of the ICC, the court described this decision as “historical” while the presidency considered that “This is just the beginning”.
Earlier in the week, the newspaper New York Times had already hinted that the ICC was on the verge of taking action against Moscow for the alleged transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia and for deliberate attacks against civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
The ICC, which has been investigating possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine for more than a year, confirmed earlier this month that it was also investigating alleged abductions of Ukrainian children, crimes denied by Moscow.