Time.news – La International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president Vladimir Putin about the invasion of Ukraine. The court in The Hague has accused the Kremlin chief of responsibility for war crimes that his troops have committed in Ukraine.
Putin, explained the ICC, is accused of the “war crime of deportation of the population” and of “illegal transfer of the population”, in particular children from the areas occupied by Moscow’s troops in Ukraine since the beginning of the war. “There are well-founded reasons”, reads the communiqué from The Hague, “to believe that Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the crimes mentioned above”.
The judges of the CPI have also issued an arrest warrant for the Russian commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova Belovaaccused of the same crimes. Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, Kiev estimates that they are over 16,000 childrenthose forcibly transferred to Russia or occupied areas.
Previously, UN investigators had determined that the forced deportation of Ukrainian children amounted to a war crime. The UN Commission of Inquiry into Ukraine said there is evidence of the illegal transfer of hundreds of Ukrainian children to Russia.
The Commission’s report says Russia has also committed other war crimes in Ukraine, including attacks on hospitals, torture, rape and intentional killings. Russia has repeatedly denied committing crimes during what it calls a “special military operation”.
The reactions of Moscow and Kiev
“The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for Russia and are legally null and void,” the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said. Maria Zakharova.
The Ukrainian presidency called the decision of the International Criminal Court “historic” and called it “only a first step” to bring about justice after the invasion of Ukraine. “This is just the beginning,” the head of the Ukrainian presidential staff added on social media Andriy Yermak.