The illegal deportation of children from Ukraine is a war crime, according to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday. On Friday, it also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Russian Federation’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, on related charges.

There are “reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children,” according to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued the warrant on Friday.

Situation in #Ukraine: #ICC judges issue arrest warrants against Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova
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— Int’l Criminal Court (@IntlCrimCourt) March 17, 2023

In a statement released on Friday, the Hague-based court said the order was issued due to Putin’s alleged involvement in the forcible removal and transfer of minors from the seized territories of Ukraine to Russia.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on after the ICC’s announcement, “The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view.” “Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it.”

The United States does not support or recognize the authority of the ICC because it is not a member of that tribunal.

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