The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He is accused of being responsible for war crimes in Ukraine.
There has been global outrage at sights of mass executions, such as in Bucha outside Kyiv earlier in the conflict, and missile attacks on apartment buildings and hospitals.
However, the arrest warrant is specifically for his alleged role in claims Moscow has rounded up Ukrainian children and deported them to Russia.
Moscow has denied war crimes allegations and said the warrant “has no meaning”. Kremlin insiders said Russia was not “stealing children”.
The ICC, based in The Hague in the Netherlands, is a court of last resort for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan launched an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine just days after Russia’s invasion.
The court has also issued an arrest warrant for Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights Maria Lvova-Belova who is said to have masterminded the scheme.
She has claimed to have adopted a 15-year-old boy from Mariupol, a Ukrainian city Russia practically destroyed during its invasion.
Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of (children) and that of unlawful transfer of (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation,” the ICC stated.
“There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes,” it said.
This month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky referred to the “kidnapping, forced adoption and re-education of Ukrainian children committed by Russia”, calling it “a war crime and a crime against humanity”.
Russia has said it is simply taking in “refugee” children from Ukraine.
Some of the children taken to Russia are from orphanages. However, Kyiv has said many were taken from families during the chaos of invasion.
Putin was responsible both directly by committing the acts and for “failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or allowed for their commission,” said the ICC.
“Children cannot be treated as the spoils of war,” the ICC’s Mr Khan said in a statement on March 7.
Unlikely to face trial
It is unlikely that the arrest warrant will have any immediate affect on Putin given Russia, along with the USA, does not recognise the ICC. Australia is an ICC signatory.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russia was not subject to the ICC so its warrant meant nothing.
“The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view.”
However, it could mean any travel outside of Russia is risky for the country’s leader. In August, Putin is thought to be planning to visit South Africa for a summit.
South Africa recognises the ICC and so would be duty bound to arrest Putin upon arrival. But it might choose not to do so.
‘Russia does not steal children’
A former spokesman for Putin Sergei Markov claimed parents were allowed to visit their kids “every week”.
“It is a policy of the Russian government to save children, not to steal children”.
Maria Lvova-Belova brushed off her warrant
“It’s great that the international community has appreciated the work to help the children of our country, that we do not leave them in the war zones, that we take them out, that we create good conditions for them, that we surround them with loving, caring people,” she told Russian media.
Ukraine is also not an ICC member but Kyiv has accepted the court’s jurisdiction and is working with Mr Khan’s office.
Ukraine’s presidential office said on Friday the ICC’s decision was just an initial step in restoring justice over Russia’s invasion.
“The Hague Chamber of the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin. This is just the beginning,” Ukraine’s presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak said on social media.
– with AAP.
