The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a statement, the court said the Russian president “is 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”.
It also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children, on similar allegations.
The ICC said that its pre-trial chamber found there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that the two suspects are responsible for the alleged war crimes.
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In a press conference, the president of the ICC Piotr Hofmanski said the warrants were “an important moment in the process of justice”.
He also said that the judges dealing with the case “determined there are credible allegations against these persons for the alleged crime”.
“Their execution [of the warrants] depends on international cooperation,” he said.
Senior Ukrainian officials applauded the ICC, with Ukraine’s prosecutor general Andriy Kostin saying the decision was “historic for Ukraine and the entire international law system”.
Andriy Yermak, chief of the presidential staff, said that issuing the warrant was “only the beginning”.
Russia has denied accusations its military forces have committed war crimes since it invaded Ukraine on 24 February last year.
The ICC arrest warrants “have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on her Telegram channel.
