Vladimir Putin, international arrest warrant for the Russian president

The International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued an international war crimes arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin. The Russian president is accused of deporting thousands of children from Ukraine to Russia. The investigation had been open for months because everything concerning children and adolescents takes precedence. The crimes would have been committed in the occupied Ukrainian territory starting from 24 February 2022. The minors were allegedly sent to Russian re-education camps and then entrusted to adoptive families.

The same accusation was contested at Maria Lvova-Belova, Moscow Commissar for Children’s Rights. Putin would be “responsible for the war crime of illegal deportation of population (children) and illegal transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia”. Three judges accepted the requests of the prosecutor Karim Khan: the Italian Rosario Aitala, the Japanese Tomoko Akane and the Costa Rican Sergio Ugalde.

The Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Andrij Kostin, commented on Twitter talking about a historic decision. “I am personally grateful to ICC prosecutor Karim Khan for this historic decision. We continue close cooperation with the ICC in cases of forced deportation of Ukrainian children. Over 40 volumes of files, more than 1000 pages of evidence already shared with the Court”.

Moscow’s response was immediate. «The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, not even from a legal point of viewKremlin spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. «The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin. No need to explain WHERE this document should be used,” Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev wrote on Twitter, adding a toilet paper emoji.

There is an international arrest warrant because heads of state are not granted immunity in cases of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide. Unable to execute the order capturewhich is however an act that limits the movements of Valdimir Putin.

A Yale University research center report from February 2023 says that “Between February 2022 and January 2023, more than 6,000 young people between 4 months and 17 years of age were transferred”. On March 16, 2023, the report of the UN commission of inquiry was published accusing Moscow of “a considerable number of war crimes in four Ukrainian regions in the first weeks after the Russian invasion”.

-Ukraine, Maryna and Valentina: with friendship, being away from home hurts less

-2022, the year of the war in Ukraine

-Ukraine, the wedding photos in the house destroyed by the war