The International Criminal Court in The Hague issues an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova - the Court's press service
The President and the Commissioner for Children's Rights of the Russian Federation are accused of illegal deportation and transfer of people, including children, from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia.
"Based on the motions of the prosecutor's office of 22 February 2023, Pre-Trial Chamber II found that there were sufficient grounds to believe that the suspects were responsible for the war crime of illegal deportation of the population and illegal transfer of the population from the occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, which caused harm to Ukrainian children," the statement reads.
The Chamber declared the warrants secret to protect victims and witnesses and ensure the investigation. However, given that criminal acts continue to be committed and that public awareness of the warrants may help to deter further crimes, the Chamber considers that it is in the interests of justice to allow the Registry to disclose information about the warrants publicly, the names of the suspects, the crimes for which the warrants were issued, and the types of liability established by the Chamber.
The arrest warrants were issued on 22 February 2023 following motions filed by the Prosecutor's Office.
"This means that, outside Russia, Putin must be arrested and brought to trial. World leaders will think twice before shaking his hand or sitting with him at the negotiating table. The world has received a signal that the Russian regime is criminal, and its leadership and accomplices will be brought to justice," says Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andrii Kostin.
The Prosecutor General notes that more than 16,000 children have been deported from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv and Kherson regions. The true number may be higher.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that "the decision has no significance, in particular from a legal point of view", as Russia "is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and has no obligations under it".
