On Friday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest order for Russian President Vladimir Putin for his role in the invasion of Ukraine and the forced transfer of children to Russia.
Ukrainians claim that Russia is conducting genocide against them and is trying to eradicate their culture and history by, among other things, forcibly relocating children to Russia.
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Putin is “alleged to be responsible for the war crimes of unlawful expulsion of people (children)” and “unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation,” according to a statement released by the Hague-based court on Friday.
The statement stated, “There are reasonable reasons to assume that Mr. Putin has individual criminal culpability” for these offenses.
The court argued that the Russian president failed to “exercise sufficient supervision over civilian and military subordinates who committed the actions” and who were “effectively under his authority and control.”
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights in the office of the president, for her participation in the deportations.
This is the first time the International Criminal Court has issued warrants in connection with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February of last year.
That comes before Chinese President Xi Jinping’s upcoming visit to Russia and will significantly restrict Putin’s own diplomatic options.
Moscow has already said that it does not accept the authority of the court.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said, “The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for Vladimir Putin’s arrest.” There is no need to specify WHERE this document should be utilized…The sentence ends with a toilet paper emoji.
The Kremlin has denied committing crimes despite several claims that Russian soldiers committed war crimes in Ukraine, including a recent U.N. study that concluded Russia’s forcible deportation of Ukrainian children constituted a war crime.
Human Rights Watch’s assistant director of international justice, Balkees Jarrah, said in a statement that the warrant sends “a strong message that providing instructions to perpetrate or condoning major crimes against civilians will lead to a jail cell.”
