The International Criminal Court on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of being responsible for war crimes committed in Ukraine.
Putin is allegedly responsible for the «war crime» of the illegal deportation of children and the illegal transfer of children from Ukraine to Russia, the court, based in The Hague, Netherlands, said in a press release.
“There are reasonable grounds to believe that Putin has individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes,” said the court that the investigating judges had assessed.
It added that he had allegedly failed to «exercise adequate control over the civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or permitted their commission, and who were under his effective authority and control.»
Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Putin’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights, is also accused of similar offences, the ICC said.
Since the first days of the invasion last February, kyiv has accused Russia of forcibly relocating children and adults.
Russian officials have consistently denied the allegations, calling them a «fantasy» aimed at discrediting Russia. The Russian embassy in the United States said last month that the country had taken in children who had been forced to flee the fighting.
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