Vladimir Putin and another Russian official have arrest orders issued by the International Criminal Court in relation to the conflict in Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin and another Russian official have arrest orders issued by the International Criminal Court in relation to the conflict in Ukraine.
Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Russian Federation’s Office of the President’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, are “allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation,” according to a statement the court issued.
Piotr Hofmanski, the court’s president, said in a video posted on Friday that “international cooperation” will be necessary to execute the warrants. According to BBC News, the ICC does not have the authority to detain suspects, and Russia is not a party to the deal that established the court.
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, stated in a Telegram message, “The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view.”
“Russia does not cooperate with this body, and possible ‘recipes’ for arrest coming from the International Court of Justice will be legally null and void for us,” said Zakharova.
Despite the fact that the existence of the warrants was made public, Hofmanski stated that the warrants’ contents stay classified in order to protect victims “in the interest of justice and to prevent the commission of future crimes.”
“The judges have reviewed the information and evidence submitted by the prosecutor and determined that there are credible allegations against these persons for the alleged crimes,” he said.
According to Hofmanski, children are given unique protections under international law, which forbids occupying powers from relocating civilians from the areas where they currently reside to other territories.
In accordance with a report last month by The Associated Press, Russian officials have illegally deported Ukrainian children to Russia or areas under its control while providing them with Russian families and citizenship. According to the AP, the kids, who are also being used as props, were informed that their parents didn’t want them.
The United Nations reports that since the beginning of the Russian assault of Ukraine in February 2022, hundreds of thousands of children have reportedly been transported from Ukraine to Russia. The children who were impacted included some who “lost parents or temporarily lost contact with them during hostilities; who were separated following the detention of a parent at a filtration point; and children in institutions,” according to a report released on Thursday by the U.N.’s Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine.
The transfers “amount to a war crime,” according to the committee.
In a report by Reuters, Russia has refuted claims that its troops perpetrated atrocities as part of their ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
