War in Ukraine: the International Criminal Court issues an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin

Europe 1 with AFP 17:27 p.m., March 17, 2023

The International Criminal Court (ICC) said Friday it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for the war crime of "unlawful deportation" of Ukrainian children since the start of the Russian invasion. The ICC, which sits in The Hague, has also issued an arrest warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's presidential commissioner for children's rights, on similar charges. Russia is not a member of the ICC and experts say it is unlikely to surrender suspects. The court did not specify how it planned to execute arrest warrants.

>> READ ALSO - Drones, hunters... In the face of the Ukrainian conflict, the Black Sea airspace is saturated

Illegal deportation and transfer of population

"Today, 17 March 2023, Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against two persons in connection with the situation in Ukraine: Mr Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Ms Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova", the Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights in Russia, the ICC said in a statement. The Russian president "is presumed responsible for the war crime of illegal deportation of population (children) and illegal transfer of population (children) from the occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation," the court added.

"The crimes were allegedly committed on the territory of Ukraine occupied at least from February 24, 2022," the ICC continued, adding that there were "reasonable grounds to believe that Vladimir Putin is personally responsible for the aforementioned crimes." The Russian president is presumed responsible both directly for committing the acts and for "the failure to exercise proper control over the civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or allowed them to be committed," according to the statement.

>> READ ALSO - War in Ukraine: why is Bakhmut highly strategic for Kiev and Moscow?

"Spoils of War"

On Monday, the New York Times reported that the ICC was preparing to prosecute Russians for transferring children to Russia and for deliberate strikes on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said earlier this month after a visit to Ukraine that alleged child abductions were "under priority investigation." "Children cannot be treated as spoils of war," he said.

Karim Khan stressed that he had visited a childcare centre in southern Ukraine that was "empty, following the alleged deportation of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation" or other occupied areas. Neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the ICC, but Kiev has accepted the court's jurisdiction over its territory and is working with the prosecutor. The ICC, created in 2002 to try the world's worst crimes, has been investigating possible war crimes or crimes against humanity committed during the Russian offensive for more than a year.