Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President, Vladimir Putin, over alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
The Hague-based court, in a statement on Friday said the warrant was issued over Putin’s suspected involvement in the unlawful deportation and transfer of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia
“There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes,” ICC said.
The ICC also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for children’s rights in the Office of the Russian President on similar allegations.
Russia, which has denied committing atrocities since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022, does not recognise the ICC’s jurisdiction and does not extradite its nationals.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, on her Telegram channel said the decisions of the ICC have no meaning for her country.
“The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view.
“Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it,” Zakharova said.
But ICC President, Piotr Hofmanski, in a video posted on ICC’s Twitter page, said it was “completely irrelevant” that Russia had not ratified the Rome Statute.
“According to the ICC statute, which has 123 state parties, two-thirds of the whole international community, the court has jurisdiction over crimes committed in the territory of a state party or a state which has accepted its jurisdiction. Ukraine has accepted the ICC twice – in 2014 and then in 2015,” he said.
Hofmanski said 43 states had referred “the situation in Ukraine to the court, which means they have formally triggered our jurisdiction.”
“The court has jurisdiction over crimes committed on anyone on the territory of Ukraine from November 2013 onwards regardless of nationality of the alleged perpetrators,” ICC President added.
The warrants came a day after a United Nations-backed inquiry accused Russia of committing wide-ranging war crimes in Ukraine, including the forced deportations of children in areas it controls.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General, Andriy Kostin hailed ICC’s decision.
In a statement on social media, Kostin said: “The world received a signal that the Russian regime is criminal and its leadership and henchmen will be held accountable. This is a historic decision for Ukraine and the entire system of international law.”
