The Kremlin says the International Criminal Court indictment against Vladimir Putin is moot for Russian jurisdiction.
US President Joe Biden said it was clear that Vladimir Putin had committed war crimes in Ukraine and that the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against the Russian president was justified.
The US, like Russia, is not a party to international courts, but Mr Biden said the ICC had made strong arguments against Mr Putin.
“He clearly committed a war crime,” Biden told reporters on Friday.
“We are not internationally recognized either. But I think that will be a very strong point,” he added.
The ICC has called for the arrest of Putin on suspicion of his involvement in the illegal deportation and transfer of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
The court also issued an arrest warrant for Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Libova Belova on the same charges.
The ICC warrant now obliges the court’s 123 member states to arrest Putin and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he sets foot on their territory.
The Kremlin said the court’s accusations against Putin were outrageous and meaningless in terms of Russian jurisdiction.
Russia hosts at least 6,000 Ukrainian children in at least 43 camps and other facilities as part of a “massive organized network,” according to a report last month by US-backed Yale University researchers. are doing.
The Ukrainian government recently announced that more than 14,700 children had been deported to Russia. More than 1,000 of them left the port city of Mariupol, which had been besieged and nearly destroyed for weeks.
The United States has separately concluded that Russian forces committed war crimes in Ukraine and supports accountability for perpetrators of war crimes, a State Department spokeswoman said in an email.
“There is no doubt that Russia has committed war crimes and atrocities (in Ukraine) and it is clear that those responsible must be held accountable,” the spokesperson added.
In a video statement, ICC President Piotr Hofmansky said a court judge had issued an arrest warrant, but it was up to the international community to enforce it. It does not have its own police force.
The ICC, according to its founding treaty, the Rome Statute, can impose a maximum sentence of life imprisonment “when justified by the extreme gravity of the crime.” This establishes the ICC as a permanent court of last resort to prosecute political leaders and other major perpetrators of the world’s worst atrocities, including war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. it was done.
