War crime arrest warrant for Putin
President accused of abducting Ukrainian children by International Criminal Court
VLADIMIR PUTIN has been issued with an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court over the abduction of Ukrainian children.
The Russian president has been accused of war crimes including forcibly deporting “at least hundreds” of Ukrainian children, including orphans, to his own country.
The announcement came ahead of one of the most highly anticipated weeks of the war, with Xi Jinping, China’s president, set to visit Moscow on Monday in an attempt to broker a ceasefire.
Both the US and UK said any Chinesebrokered deal would be meaningless if it accepted Moscow’s refusal to leave territories it occupies inside Ukraine.
White House officials declared that such a ceasefire would be a “ratification of Russian conquest,” and Downing Street said any settlement “not predicated on Ukraine’s sovereignty” was “not a peace deal at all”.
Putin could face arrest in more than 100 countries that recognise the jurisdiction of the ICC, seriously impacting presence on the world stage and travel to international summits.
He became only the third serving president to be issued an ICC arrest warrant, after Sudan’s Omar al-bashir, and Muammar Gaddafi, Libya’s late dictator.
Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary, said an important marker had been laid down. “It’s going to be a long journey, but people said that about Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and many of those people responsible for the carnage ended up in the dock of a court,” he said.
Mr Raab called on Ukraine’s allies to step up the search for proof of Russian war crimes to aid the investigation.
There was a furious response in Moscow with the parliament speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin, a close ally of the Russian president, saying: “Yankees, hands off Putin!”
More than 16,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia since the invasion 13 months ago, according to Kyiv. Karim Khan, the British ICC prosecutor, said Putin had changed the law in his country to make it easier for Russian families to adopt children snatched from Ukraine.
He added: “We cannot allow children to be treated as if they are the spoils of war. Today is a first, concrete step with respect to the situation in Ukraine.”
Kyiv welcomed the arrest warrant and said it was “just the beginning” of seeking justice over Russia’s invasion.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky, the president, said: “The world changed. It’s a clear signal to Russian elites of what will happen to them and why it won’t be ‘as before’.”
Andriy Kostin, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, said: “Over 16,000 incidents of forcible deportation of children … we fear the real numbers may be higher. Russia is literally tearing apart our future.”
Russia, like the US, is not one of the 123 countries that are parties to the ICC under the Rome Statute, which estab- lished the court. A future trial of Mr Putin is therefore highly improbable.
The ICC has no police force to enforce warrants, and it would be up to the international community to do so.
The ICC announcement came a month after a report by researchers at Yale University, backed by the US State Department. It said at least 6,000 Ukrainian children, and probably many more, had been held for “political reeducation” at sites in Crimea and Russia.
THE International Criminal Court (ICC) issued only its third arrest warrant for a sitting head of state when it yesterday ordered the apprehension of Vladimir Putin.
After a lengthy investigation into potential war crimes in Ukraine, the Hague-based court ruled that the Russian president was allegedly responsible for the “unlawful deportation” of thousands of children from the war-torn country.
Maria Lvova-belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, was also issued with a warrant for her role in the alleged war crime.
The ICC announcement was met with jubilation in Ukraine, and praised by Kyiv’s Western allies. But what does it really mean?
What is an ICC arrest warrant?
The International Criminal Court in The Hague prosecutes those accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
Established in 1998, the ICC has powers to investigate alleged crimes if the offence is committed inside one of its member states or a country that recognises the court’s powers.
It can issue arrest warrants to anyone where there is legal standing to suggest they have committed a war crime, in order to stand trial for the alleged misdemeanour.
What is Vladimir Putin charged with?
The Russian president is charged with alleged responsibility 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 court said there are “reasonable grounds to believe Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility” for the alleged crimes, for having either committed them directly or ordered others to do so.
The Ukrainian government believes as many as 16,000 children have been forcibly taken to Russia. Western governments also allege that Moscow has deported thousands of children to Russia, often through a complex network of re-education camps. Russia
insists the Kremlin-sponsored scheme is important humanitarian work to protect children from the dangers of war.
Will Putin be arrested?
It is unlikely that Putin will face trial for his alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
Anyone accused of a crime in the
jurisdiction of the court can be tried, but the ICC does not conduct trials in absentia. This means the Russian president would either have to be handed over by Russia or arrested outside of his own country.
The ICC has no police force so relies on member states to detain and transfer suspects to The Hague.
What does the warrant mean?
It is mostly symbolic, and likely to give Ukraine a massive morale boost after more than a year of Russian onslaught.
However, an outstanding ICC arrest warrant will have practical implications for Mr Putin.
Currently there are 123 member states that have promised to enforce the ICC’S orders, including Britain and the entirety of the European Union.
This leaves the Russian president with very few travel options, mainly restricted to trips to states, such as Iran, China and North Korea.
How did the ICC reach its decision?
Prosector Karim Khan last year launched an investigation into Putin’s potential war crimes. He has made multiple visits to Ukraine, while a team of investigators has worked relentlessly to gather evidence.
What does Russia say about it?
Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations that its forces have committed war crimes during its one-year invasion of Ukraine.
Shortly after the ICC made its announcement, the Kremlin branded the court’s decision “null and void”.
Has the ICC ever convicted someone?
The court made its first conviction in March 2012, when Thomas Dyilo was found guilty of war crimes for using child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
After two decades, it has heard 31 cases and convicted 10 people.
Judges can sentence anyone found guilty to up to 30 years in prison.