MIAMI, United States. The International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, the Netherlands, issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, accusing him of being responsible for war crimes committed in Ukraine.
In accordance with a press release from the CourtPutin is responsible for the “war crime” of illegal deportation of children and illegal transfer of children from Ukraine to Russia.
“There are reasonable grounds to believe that Putin has individual criminal responsibility for the crimes mentioned above,” the international organization said.
It also noted that the Russian president failed to “exercise adequate control over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or allowed their commission, and who were under his effective authority and control.”
The International Criminal Court also pointed to Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, as responsible for similar crimes.
“There are reasonable grounds to believe that Ms. Lvova-Belova bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes, having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others,” the Court noted.
Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukrainein February 2022, kyiv has accused Russia of forcibly transferring children and adults to its territory.
For their part, Russian officials have denied the accusations, calling them an anti-Russian “fantasy.” However, last month the Russian Embassy in the United States acknowledged that the country had “hosted” children forced to flee the fighting.
