Arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin issued over Ukraine war crimes by International Criminal Court

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant on Friday against Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of being responsible for war crimes committed in Ukraine, but Moscow said the move was meaningless.

Russia has repeatedly denied accusations that its forces have committed atrocities during its year-long invasion of its neighbour.

The ICC issued the warrant for Putin’s arrest on suspicion of unlawful deportation of children and unlawful transfer of people from the territory of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

The news came ahead of a planned state visit to Moscow next week by Chinese President Xi Jinping that is likely to cement much closer ties between Russia and China just as relations between Moscow and the West hit new lows.

Beijing and Moscow struck a “no limits” partnership before the invasion and US and European leaders have said they are concerned Beijing may send arms to Russia.

China has denied any such plan, criticising Western weapon supplies to Ukraine, which will soon extend to fighter jets after Poland and Slovakia this week approved deliveries. The Kremlin said the jets would simply be destroyed.

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The Kremlin said on Friday it did not recognise the jurisdiction of the ICC.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia found the very questions raised by the ICC “outrageous and unacceptable”, and that any decisions of the court were “null and void” with respect to Russia.

“Russia, just like a number of different countries, does not recognise the jurisdiction of this court and so from a legal point of view, the decisions of this court are void,” he said.

Asked if Putin now feared travelling to countries that recognised the ICC, Peskov said: “I have nothing to add on this subject. That’s all we want to say.”

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday hailed the “historic” decision of the ICC to issue Putin’s arrest warrant.

“This is an historic decision which will lead to historic accountability,” he said in his nightly video address. The real number of deported children could be “far more” than 16,000, he said, and their deportations constituted a policy of “state evil which starts precisely with the top official of this state.”

He added, “It would have been impossible to enact such a criminal operation without the say-so of the man at the helm of the terrorist state.”

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on her Telegram channel: “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.”

“Russia does not cooperate with this body and possible ‘recipes’ for arrest coming from the international court will be legally void as far as we are concerned,” Zakharova said, without referring to Putin by name.

Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev also took to Twitter, likening the warrant to toilet paper.

Margarita Simonyan, head of the Russian state broadcaster RT, implied that Moscow could respond militarily to any attempts to arrest the Russian president.

“I would like to see the country that arrests Putin by the decision of The Hague. Some eight minutes after. Or however long the flight time will be to its capital,” Simonyan said on social media.

The ICC also issued a warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, on the same charges.

“There have been sanctions against me from all countries, even Japan, and now an arrest warrant …,” Lvova-Belova was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA Novosti.

“But we will continue our work.”

Members of the Russian opposition praised the move.

“Congratulations to Vladimir Vladimirovich on his arrest in absentia! This is just the first step,” Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who spent a decade behind bars, said on social media.

“Lock him up!” tweeted activist Vladimir Milov, an ally of jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

Senior Ukrainian officials applauded the ICC decision, with the country’s Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin hailing it as “historic for Ukraine and the entire international law system”.

Andriy Yermak, chief of the presidential staff, said that issuing the warrant was “only the beginning”.

US President Joe Biden said on Friday that Putin had clearly committed war crimes and the ICC’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for him was justified.

“He’s clearly committed war crimes,” Biden said, referring to Putin.

“Well, I think it’s justified,” Biden added, referring to the warrant. “But the question is – it’s not recognised internationally by us either. But I think it makes a very strong point.”

The US separately has concluded that Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine and supports accountability for perpetrators of war crimes, a State Department spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

“There is no doubt that Russia is committing war crimes and atrocities (in) Ukraine, and we have been clear that those responsible must be held accountable,” the spokesperson added. “This was a decision the ICC prosecutor reached independently based on the facts before him.”

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan opened an investigation into possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Ukraine a year ago. He highlighted during four trips to Ukraine that he was looking at alleged crimes against children and the targeting of civilian infrastructure.

The ICC move came a day after a UN-mandated investigative body accused Russia of committing wide-ranging war crimes in Ukraine, including wilful killings and torture, in some cases making children watch loved ones being raped and detaining others alongside dead bodies.

Russia has been placed under unprecedented Western sanctions since Putin sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022.