The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of the “unlawful deportation” of children.
The court issued a statement on the matter Friday.
The statement said Putin 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 (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute).”
It was alleged that the crimes occurred in “Ukrainian occupied territory at least from 24 February 2022.”
The statement continued, “There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes, (i) for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute), and (ii) for his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or allowed for their commission, and who were under his effective authority and control, pursuant to superior responsibility (article 28(b) of the Rome Statute).”
Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the presidential commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Russian Federation, was also named in the statement.
“Pre-Trial Chamber II considered, based on the Prosecution’s applications of 22 February 2023, that there are reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children,” the court explained.
Russia’s foreign ministry responded to the arrest warrants with a statement, per CBS News.
“The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view. Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it,” the statement reads.
In March of last year, President Joe Biden called Putin a “war criminal.”
BREAKING: Pres. Biden calls Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin a " war criminal." https://t.co/ORuOYE3lBs pic.twitter.com/9XHbwoCZrq
— ABC News (@ABC) March 16, 2022
Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, reacted to Biden’s remark.
“We consider unacceptable and unforgivable such rhetoric of the head of state, whose bombs killed hundreds of thousands of people around the world,” he said.