International Writing (EFE).- The President of Ukraine, Volodímir Zelenski, described the arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his alleged responsibility in the illegal deportation, as a “historic decision”. of Ukrainian children and their removal to Russia.
“This is a historic decision, from which historic responsibility will begin,” Zelensky said in his usual late-night speech.
The ICC issued this Friday an arrest warrant against Putin as “suspected responsible” for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children and their transfer from occupied areas in Ukraine to Russia, which constitutes a war crime according to the treaty of this court, the Statute from Rome.
The ICC pre-trial chamber also issued a second arrest warrant against Russian politician Maria Lvova-Belova, Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights in Russia, on the same charge.
“Today we have a fundamental decision of international justice. In a case that has a real perspective,” added the Ukrainian president.
“The terrorist head of state and another Russian official have officially become suspects in a war crime. The deportation of Ukrainian children: the illegal transfer of thousands of our children to the territory of the terrorist state,” Zelensky said.
According to the president, there have been more than 16,000 cases of forced deportation of Ukrainian children by Russia in criminal proceedings investigated by law enforcement officials, but added that “the actual and complete number of deportees may be much higher.”
“It would be impossible to commit such a criminal operation without the order of the highest leader of the terrorist state,” he stressed.
“Separating children from their families, depriving them of any opportunity to contact relatives, hiding children on the territory of Russia and dumping them in remote regions – all this is obvious Russian state policy, state decisions and state wrongdoing. That begins precisely with the highest official of this state”, insisted Zelenski.
The Ukrainian president thanked the team of the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, and that International Criminal Court “for the integrity and the will to really bring the guilty to justice.”
So far, the ruler said, it has been possible to return just over 300 children of all those who were taken by force.
“It is obvious that we will continue to do everything possible for it. For giving back to all Ukrainians, to all Ukrainian women, to all our children. And for the real responsibility of all those responsible for this deportation, from the head of the terrorist State to all the executors”, he affirmed.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan identified, in his petition for the arrest warrant of President Vladimir Putin, the deportation to Russia of “at least hundreds of children taken from Ukrainian orphanages and child care homes” in the context of the “acts of aggression” of the Russian Army against Ukraine.
Khan alleged that these acts of deporting Ukrainian minors to Russia and their adoption by Russian families “demonstrate an intent to permanently remove these children from their own country,” an illegal act because these Ukrainian minors “were protected persons” under the Geneva Conventions, which regulate international humanitarian law.
Today Russia described as “legally void” the arrest warrant for the head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, ordered by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the illegal deportation of children and their transfer from occupied areas in Ukraine to Russia, which represents a war crime.
“Possible ‘prescriptions’ for arrest that come out of the International Court will be legally null for us,” wrote Maria Zajárova, Russian Foreign Affairs spokeswoman, on her Telegram channel.
Kuleba applauds the ICC arrest warrant against Putin: “Justice is on the march”
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, welcomed the international arrest warrant issued against Russian President Vladimir Putin by the International Criminal Court in The Hague (ICC).
“Justice is on the march: I applaud the ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova for the forced transfer of Ukrainian children,” Kuleba said, referring to the Russian presidential commissioner for Children’s Rights, whose arrest has also been ordered by The Hague.
“International criminals will pay for kidnapping children and for other international crimes,” stressed the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, who has been mobilizing for months to get the international community to prosecute the more than 70,000 Russian war crimes that Kiev claims to have registered on its territory. .
Ukrainian authorities are investigating the forced deportation to Russia of more than 16,000 Ukrainian children from the occupied territories, and have sent vast amounts of evidence to The Hague proving Moscow’s treatment of these children.
Ukraine had initiated several proceedings against Russia in The Hague for the more than 70,000 Russian war crimes it claims to have documented in the territory.
It is the first time in history that the ICC has issued an arrest warrant against the president of a country that is a member of the UN Security Council.
US supports Russia’s response
The United States stressed this Friday that “there is no doubt” that Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine and, after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, supported that those responsible “give account”.
“The ICC prosecutor is an independent actor and makes his own decisions based on the evidence before him. We support accountability for perpetrators of war crimes,” Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, said in a statement.
The United States has not ratified the Rome Statute with which the ICC was established and has traditionally opposed various investigations of the body.
“There is no doubt that Russia is committing war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine and we have made it clear that those responsible for that must be held accountable,” added the spokeswoman for the National Security Council.