Judges of the International Criminal Court in The Hague (ICC) have issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin. By taking children from Ukraine to Russia, the Russian president may have been guilty of war crimes. The chance that Putin will actually appear before a court in The Hague is virtually zero.
According to the ICC, Putin is responsible for illegally abducting children from occupied territories in Ukraine to Russia. An arrest warrant has also been issued against Maria Lvova-Belova. She is the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights.
When children are deported across the border by government forces during an armed conflict, according to the United Nations human trafficking and a war crime.
A special UN commission visited 56 places in Ukraine and spoke to nearly 600 people. According to the ICC, the deportations began immediately after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
According to Ukraine, the Russians deported 16,221 Ukrainian minors until last month. The UN researchers have not been able to confirm these figures.
The committee does say that it can prove that Ukrainian children have been forcibly placed in institutions and with foster families in Russia. Putin signed a decree to speed up the acquisition of Russian nationality by these children.
Russia not impressed by arrest warrant
A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry says that the arrest warrant for Putin has no meaning. Russia left the ICC in November 2016. “Russia bears no responsibilities to the ICC,” the spokesman said.
Ukraine calls the arrest warrant “historic for Ukraine and the international justice system”. According to the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the arrest warrant is “only the beginning”.
Prosecutor Karim Khan of the ICC opened a year ago an investigation into possible war crimes against humanity and genocide in Ukraine, including against children.
Russia has always denied committing war crimes since it invaded Ukraine more than a year ago.
