The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin on Friday, against allegations of war crimes in Ukraine. Suspecting Putin’s involvement in the abduction of children from their homeland Ukraine to Russia. This has pushed Russia a step closer to becoming a pariah state.
The war devastated Ukraine welcomed the ICC announcement with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praising the “historic decision”.
However, Moscow considers this move by ICC as meaningless as Russia is not a party of ICC so it is doubtful if or how the Russian President could ever end up behind the bars.
The ICC Judges identified “reasonable grounds” to suspect Vladimir Putin and Maria Alekseyena Lvova-Belova are responsible for the ‘unlawful deportation and transfer” of children living in parts of Ukraine.
As per the Kyiv, since 24th February 2022,over 16,000 children have been deported from Ukraine to Russia, out of which many are placed in institutions and foster homes.
The Russian Presidential Children’s Commissioner Maria Alekseyena Lvova-Belova said that the arrest warrant reflected “appreciation” for her work “to help the children of our country, we don’t leave them in the war zone, that we take them out”, The Guardian reported.
The warrant issued could be mainly based on forensic evidence and scrutiny. According to the sources, the International court of justice’s unexpected announcement came hours after various news impacting Russia-Ukraine war, including Moscow visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping and more fighter jets for Kyiv’s forces.
The International Criminal Court was set up in the year 2002, it acts as a court of last resort for global crimes, when nations cannot or will not indict suspects. Over 100 countries hold membership with ICC. Hence now after ICC has issued an arrest warrant, Putin is liable to it, so there are more possibilities of Putin being arrested while travelling to ICC member countries.
