On 17 March, the Pre-Trial Division of the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Children's Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova.
This is stated on the ICC website.
According to the report, Putin is allegedly responsible for the war crime of illegal deportation of children and their illegal transfer from the occupied territories of Ukraine to the territory of the Russian Federation.
‘There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin is individually criminally responsible for the above crimes, (i) for committing the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others, and (ii) for his failure to properly supervise civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts,’ the ICC said.
Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin noted that the arrest warrant for Putin means that he must be arrested outside Russian territory.
Maria Lvova-Belova is also responsible for a similar offence.
The warrants are usually secret to protect victims and witnesses, as well as to ensure the security of the investigation. However, because these individuals continue to commit crimes and because the disclosure of the names of the suspects could prevent new offences, the court disclosed their names.
The arrest warrants were issued on the basis of applications filed by the prosecutor's office on 22 February 2023.
Update. Russia has denied all charges. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the decisions of the International Criminal Court have no significance for Russia, in particular from a legal point of view. The Russian Federation is not a party to the Rome Statute of the ICC and is not bound by it.
Earlier, it was reported that the International Criminal Court is to open two war crimes cases against Russia. These are the abduction of Ukrainian children and shelling of infrastructure.
Meanwhile, two more countries have joined the coalition to create a special tribunal for Russia.