Ukraine news: Vladimir Putin arrest warrant issued

AMSTERDAM –

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of the war crime of illegal deportation of children. Ukraine.

Moscow has repeatedly denied allegations that its forces committed atrocities during the year-long invasion of its neighbor.

The arrest warrants of the ICC “have no significance for our country, including from a legal point of view,” the official representative of the Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, said on her Telegram channel.

He added that Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that underpins the world’s permanent war crimes tribunal.

In its first warrant directed at Ukraine, the ICC called for the arrest of Putin on suspicion of illegal deportation of children and illegal transfer of people from the territory of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this week, Reuters reported that the court was expected to rule.

Separately, the court made a decision on the same charge against the Commissioner of Children’s Rights of Russia, Maria Lvova-Belova.

Russia has made no secret of a plan to bring thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, but it presents it as a humanitarian campaign to protect orphans and abandoned children in the conflict zone.

A year ago, the Prosecutor of the ICC, Karim Khan, launched an investigation into possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Ukraine. He has emphasized during his four visits to Ukraine that he is investigating alleged crimes against children and the targeting of civilian infrastructure.

The ICJ said in a statement that Putin was charged with war crimes for illegal deportations from occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

“The crimes were allegedly committed in the occupied territory of Ukraine at least since February 24, 2022. There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes.”

(Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Garrett Jones and Frank Jack Daniel)