Wanted for war crimes
Vladimir Putin arrest warrant issued over Ukraine conflict and abduction of children
THE International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine.
The court, based in the Hague, yesterday accused the Russian president of involvement in the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children.
The ICC also accused him of ‘failure to exercise control properly’ over subordinates who may have committed crimes on his behalf.
A warrant for the arrest of Maria Alexeyevna Lvova-Belova, commissioner for children’s rights in the office of the president of the Russian Federation, was also issued.
The court stated: ‘ Mr Vladimir Vladimirovich 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.
‘The crimes were allegedly committed in Ukrainian occupied territory at least from February 24, 2022.
‘There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes, or having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others, and or his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordiniting nates who committed the acts.’ Any possible trial at the ICC is a distant prospect – Moscow does not recognise the court’s jurisdiction.
Earlier this week Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov brushed off reports the ICC was preparing to announce charges. Additionally, Russia does not extradite its nationals.
Piotr Hofmanski, the ICC’s president, said it was down to the international community to ensure the arrest warrants were enforced. The court does not have its own police force to uphold its authority.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly welcomed the warrant, saying ‘those responsible for horrific war crimes in Ukraine must be brought to justice’.
A UN-backed inquiry cited Russian attacks against civilians in Ukraine, including systematic torture and killing in occupied regions, potential war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity, earlier this week.
The sweeping investigation also found crimes committed against Ukrainians on Russian territory, including deported Ukrainian children who were prevented from reuwith their families, a ‘filtration’ system aimed at singling out Ukrainians for detention, torture and inhumane detention conditions.
According to Ukraine’s prosecutor general Andriy Kostin, more than 65,000 war crimes, including ‘indiscriminate shelling of civilians, wilful killing, torture [and] conflict-related sexual violence’, have taken place since the start of the invasion.
Russia has denied its troops have committed war crimes.
Mr Kostin added: ‘This is a direct policy aimed at demographic change by cutting out Ukrainian identity. These actions are characteristics of the crime of genocide.’
On Monday the UN confirmed at least 7,110 civilian deaths in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion.
But in a promising step for president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Slovakia’s government has approved a plan to give its fleet of 13 Sovietera MiG- 29 fighter jets. It becomes the second Nato member country to heed the Ukrainian government’s pleas for warplanes. Announcing the decision, Prime Minister Eduard Heger said his government is ‘on the right side of history’.
‘Trial is a distant prospect’