International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, reportedly on the ICC website on Friday, March 17th. The court suspects Putin of war crimes, in particular violent deportation of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia. Available sufficient grounds consider that the President of Russia bears personal criminal responsibility for these crimes – directly, together with other persons or through other persons – and also for the fact that he “did not exercise proper control over the civilian and military subordinates who committed these acts or allowed them and which were under his effective authority and control, the report said.
A similar arrest warrant was issued against Maria Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights under the President of the Russian Federation. The ICC ruling states that the court in The Hague “has sufficient grounds to believe that she bears individual criminal responsibility for the above crimes, since she committed these acts directly, jointly with other persons and / or through other persons.”
Moscow denies any involvement in war crimes committed in Ukraine following the Russian military attack on that country on February 24, 2022. Russia does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and does not participate in its work. Since 2016, it has not been a party to the Rome Statute, which determines the actions of the court. In turn, the ICC does not recognize the immunity of heads of state in the case of investigation and punishment of war crimes.
Kuleba on the deportation of Ukrainian children: This is genocide
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba, speaking at a session of the UN General Assembly in New York February 22 this yearstated that thousands of Ukrainian children were forcibly taken to Russia during the war, and called it a genocide. “This is genocide. This is what we are facing today,” Kuleba stressed. Moscow calls the export of Ukrainians to Russia “evacuation from the war zone.” In addition, she denies the deportation of children, talking about their trips. “for treatment and rest.”
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky also spoke about the forced deportation of women and children to Russia during the war during a January meeting in Kiev with the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Foreign Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia Buyar Osmani.
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