The ICC issues an arrest warrant against Putin for war crimes in Ukraine

A possible trial against Russians before the International Criminal Court is still a long way off.

The Hague • The International Criminal Court on Friday issued a war crimes arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over his alleged involvement in kidnapping children from Ukraine.

The court said in a statement that Putin is “allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and unlawful transfer of population (children) from the occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”

She also on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children’s Rights at the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, on similar allegations.

The court’s president, Piotr Hofmanski, said in a video statement that while the ICC judges issued the warrants, it will be up to the international community to enforce them. The court does not have its own police force to enforce arrest warrants.

“The ICC does its part of the job as a court. The judges issued arrest warrants. Execution depends on international collaboration.”

A possible trial of Russians at the International Criminal Court is a long way off as Moscow recognizes the court’s jurisdiction – a position reiterated earlier this week by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov – and does not extradite its nationals.

Ukraine is also not a member of the court, but it has given the ICC jurisdiction over its territory, and ICC prosecutor Karim Khan has visited it four times since he launched an investigation a year ago.

The ICC said its pre-trial chamber found that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and unlawful transfer of population from the occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation of Ukrainian children.” .”

The court statement said that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Putin bears individual criminal responsibility” for the child abductions “because he committed the acts directly, jointly with others, and/or through others (and) because he failed to properly exercise control over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts.”

On Thursday, a United Nations-backed investigation cited Russian attacks on civilians in Ukraine, including systematic torture and killings in occupied territories, as possible issues that constitute war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.

The comprehensive investigation also revealed crimes committed against Ukrainians on Russian territory, including deported Ukrainian children prevented from being reunited with their families, a “filtration system” aimed at screening Ukrainians for detention, as well as Torture and inhuman prison conditions.

But on Friday, the ICC put Putin’s face on the child abduction allegations.