ICC judges issues arrest warrant against Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine

We are all aware about the current situation in Ukraine as well as the war between Russia and Ukraine and how everything is being played out since almost 400 days now. We also know that the US and other European countries have been involved in helping Ukraine fight the war against Russia and we recently reported that Poland became the first country to agree on supplying fighter jets to Ukraine which the US has already declined. Now, we can see that other actions are also being taken and this one in particular is by the International Criminal Court which was set up to punish those who have done war crimes internationally.

The ICC’s judges have announced that they have issued an arrest warrant against the Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Russia has already denied of committing any war crimes in Ukraine. The gravitas of the ICC’s arrest warrant is that the 123 member countries who are already part of the ICC and recognize them will have to arrest the Russian President if he sets foot on their land and transfer him to The Hague for trials. It is also worth noting that the ICC does not have a police force or any authority of their own so they have to rely on the member’s forces to take any action.

Kremlin branded the court decision from the ICC as “null and void”, as expected, as they have already denied any war crimes in Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “I have nothing to add on this subject. That’s all we want to say.” when he was asked if Russian President Putin feared travelling to countries that recognized the ICC. A former official of the US government under President Obama said “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”.

ICC said in their statement that “Hundreds of Ukrainian children have been taken from orphanages and children’s homes to Russia. Many of these children, we allege, have since been given up for adoption in the Russian Federation.”