International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant against Putin for committing war crimes, Moscow: ‘We do not recognize it’
The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes committed in Ukraine and issued an arrest warrant against Russia’s High Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova.
War crimes
Putin and the Commissioner for Children’s Rights may be implicated “in war crimes, namely the illegal deportation of the population (children) and the illegal transfer of the population (children) from Ukrainian territory to Russia,” the court statement said.
“There are reasonable grounds to believe that Putin bears personal criminal responsibility for the crimes in question, because he (I) committed these acts directly, in association with others and/or through others… and secondly because he did not appropriately control the subordinate military personnel who committed or allowed the acts to take place.”
Russian reduction
The Russian Foreign Ministry on Friday described the ICC’s decisions as “irrelevant” and “legally invalid,” after the announcement of an arrest warrant for Putin on charges of war crimes.
“The ICC’s decisions are irrelevant to our country,” ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said via Telegram.
“Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and has no obligations under it,” Zakharova said, adding that Moscow was “not cooperating” with the court.
The ICC’s “arrest warrants are legally invalid” for Russia, it said.
Ukrainian Welcome
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba welcomed the release of Putin’s arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday, saying that “the wheels of justice are turning”.
The Rome Statute is the constituent text of the International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, Netherlands.
