ICC seeking arrest of Putin over deportation of children

Putin’s forces have been accused of multiple abuses during Russia’s year-old invasion of Ukraine, including by a UN-mandated investigative body that this week described soldiers making children watch loved ones being raped.

Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations its forces have committed atrocities during the invasion, which it calls a special military operation.

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

Russia has not concealed a programme under which it has brought thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, but presents it as a humanitarian campaign to protect orphans and children abandoned in the conflict zone.

While it is unlikely that Putin will end up in court any time soon, the warrant means that he could be arrested and sent to The Hague if travelling to any ICC member states.

“This makes Putin a pariah. If he travels, he risks arrest. This never goes away. Russia cannot gain relief from sanctions without compliance with the warrants,” said Stephen Rapp, US ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues under former president Barack Obama.

The legal move provoked a furious response in Moscow.

“Yankees, hands off Putin!” wrote parliament speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, a close ally of the president, on Telegram, saying the move was evidence of Western “hysteria”.

“We regard any attacks on the president of the Russian Federation as aggression against our country,” he said.

Residents of the Russian capital expressed disbelief at the news. “Putin! Nobody will arrest him. Rather, he will arrest everyone,” said a man who gave his name as Daniil.

“We will protect him – the people of Russia,” said a resident identified as Maxim.

A woman who gave her name as Ksenya said it would be a “pity” if Putin was arrested, but she did not think it would be possible.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russia was not a party to the Rome Statute 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.

The court also issued a warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, on the same charges.

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 issuing the warrant was “only the beginning”.

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

In another diplomatic development related to the Ukraine war, president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey’s parliament would begin ratifying Finland’s Nato bid, removing the biggest remaining hurdle to enlarging the Western defence alliance as the conflict continues to rage.

Ukrainian forces were continuing yesterday to withstand Russian assaults on the ruined city of Bakhmut, the focal point for eight months of Russian attempts to advance through the industrial Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine bordering Russia.

Ihor, a 36-year-old soldier at the mortar position, said Ukrainian forces had been targeted by air strikes, mortar fire and tank shelling.

“You don’t always check on what’s flying over your head,” he added, crouching in a deep trench.

Bakhmut has become Europe’s bloodiest infantry battle since World War II.

Russian forces have captured the city’s eastern part but have so far failed to encircle it.

Russian forces also conducted four air strikes on the frontline town of Avdiivka, south of Bakhmut, in fighting yesterday.

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