HomeWorldArrest warrant against Putin: Ukraine's presidency says 'this is just the beginning'

Arrest warrant against Putin: Ukraine’s presidency says ‘this is just the beginning’

The International Criminal Court said on Friday it had issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president for his responsibility for war crimes committed in Ukraine since the Russian invasion.

The Ukrainian presidency welcomed this Friday the issuance of an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin by the International Criminal Court, which presumes him responsible for the war crime of deporting children from Ukraine.

“This is just the beginning,” said the head of the presidential administration Andriï Iermak on Telegram and Twitter.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba reacted on Twitter, celebrating the fact that “the wheel of justice is turning.” “I applaud the ICC’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova,” his commissioner in charge of children, he added.

“International criminals will be held accountable for stealing children and other international crimes,” he said.

A “historic decision”

The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office hailed a “historic decision”. “International leaders will think three times before shaking hands,” Ukraine’s Attorney General Andrii Kostin said in a statement about Putin.

Another official of the Ukrainian presidency, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, estimated that with this decision “the world has changed.”

“This is the beginning of the end for Russia in its current form on the international stage,” he said on Twitter.

The International Criminal Court (ICC), a permanent international criminal court, said on Friday it had issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for his responsibility for war crimes committed in Ukraine since the Russian invasion.

“Today, March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court II Pre-Trial Chamber issued arrest warrants for two individuals in connection with the situation in Ukraine: Mr. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Ms. Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova “, presidential commissioner for children. in Russia, the ICC said in a statement.

The ICC finds that “there are reasonable grounds to believe” that Putin and Lvova-Belova are responsible for the illegal deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.

Russian diplomacy denounced this Friday the “meaningless” and “insignificant” decisions of the International Criminal Court, without referring to Vladimir Putin by name in his message on Telegram.

UN investigators point to war crimes

In mid-March, a UN commission of inquiry ruled that “the situations it examined regarding the transfer and deportation of children, within Ukraine and to the Russian Federation, respectively, violate international humanitarian law and constitute a war crime.” .

According to kyiv, 16,221 children were deported to Russia as of the end of February, figures the Commission was unable to verify. But it points to the legal and political steps taken by Russian officials regarding the transfer of Ukrainian children and the May 2022 presidential decree making it easier to grant Russian citizenship to certain children.

Author: CS with AFP
Source: BFM TV

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