Deportation of Ukrainian children
International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant for Putin
3/18/2023 1:34 am
Russia abducts children from the occupied Ukrainian territories to Russia or other areas. Kiev gives their number as more than 16,000. UN investigators speak of a war crime. The International Criminal Court reacts.
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. He accuses him of being responsible for war crimes in Ukraine. Specifically, it is about the deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia. According to the ICC, there is reason to believe that Putin bears criminal responsibility for the crimes listed, since he committed them directly or failed to prevent them due to a lack of control. At the same time, the Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for 38-year-old Maria Alexeyevna Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the President’s Office.
Moscow reacted unimpressed: “Russia, like a number of other countries, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court, so the decisions of this court are legally void,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. “The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, not even in legal terms,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on her Telegram channel.
US President Biden: Arrest warrant against Putin “justified”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj describes the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against Putin as a “historic decision”. According to him, far more than 16,000 children have been abducted. “It would have been impossible to carry out such a criminal operation without the consent of the man at the head of the terrorist state,” he says in his nightly video address. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also welcomes the decision. “The wheels of justice are turning,” he tweeted. “International criminals will be held accountable for child theft and other international crimes.” US President Joe Biden considers the arrest warrant “justified”. The move sends “a very strong signal,” Biden told journalists in Washington on Friday (local time).
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann also supports the decision. “Anyone who, like Putin, instigated a bloody war should have to answer for it in court,” said the FDP politician to the editorial network Germany. “The best solution is when charges can be brought before the International Criminal Court.” In addition, it is important to continue to think about other models, “how we can implement consistent criminal prosecution, for example with a special tribunal to prosecute the crime of aggressive war,” added Buschmann.
According to the information, both arrest warrants are based on applications from the public prosecutor’s office on February 22nd. The prosecutor at the Criminal Court, Karim Khan, launched an investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity a year ago. He was supported by Germany and 13 other EU countries. Khan was in the country three times for his investigations, including in the Kiev region, where there had been a massacre in Bucha.
Newspaper: Second procedure opened
Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that the International Criminal Court was opening two cases against Russian officials for alleged crimes in Ukraine. The first case is said to be about the accusation of kidnapping Ukrainian children, the second about targeted attacks on civilian infrastructure facilities such as power plants and waterworks by the Russian military.
However, previous trials show that holding high-level officials to account is difficult. In more than 20 years, there have only been five convictions for so-called core crimes. None of the convicts were top representatives of a power structure. In addition, Russia does not recognize the jurisdiction of the Criminal Court. Furthermore, the court may not conduct trials in the absence of the accused.
Although Ukraine has not ratified the Rome Statute of the International Court of Justice, Kyiv recognizes the jurisdiction of judges for crimes against humanity and war crimes against Ukraine committed on Ukrainian territory since 2014. In 2015, the then Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin issued a corresponding statement in The Hague.
The day before, UN investigators had classified the kidnapping of Ukrainian children to Russia or to Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine as a war crime. The deportation “violates international humanitarian law and amounts to a war crime,” said a senior United Nations investigative team.
According to the Ukrainian government, as of February, more than 16,000 children have been trafficked from Ukraine to Russia or Russian-controlled areas. The team of investigators put together by the UN Human Rights Council said they could not verify the numbers. However, it referred to indications that Russian authorities were placing Ukrainian children in children’s homes or foster families and granting them Russian citizenship. Among other things, Putin signed a decree according to which children can become Russian citizens under certain conditions using a simplified procedure.