The International Criminal Court (ICC) declared on Friday March 17 that it had issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for his responsibility for war crimes perpetrated in Ukraine since the Russian invasion. This decision concerns the “deportation” thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia since the start of the conflict with Ukraine a year ago, which constitutes a war crime. Several leaders reacted to the announcement.
Starting with senior Russian officials who simply rejected the mandate, considering that it had no legal value for Russia.
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“Russia, like a number of states, does not recognize the jurisdiction of this court, therefore, from the point of view of law, the decisions of this court are null and void”Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Dmitry Peskov felt that the very idea of Vladimir Putin’s arrest was “scandalous and unacceptable”. Spokesperson for Russian diplomacy, Maria Zakharova, spoke of an ICC decision “meaningless”, “including from a legal point of view”. “Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and has no obligations under it”stressed Maria Zakharova on Telegram, adding that Moscow “not cooperating” with the court based in the Netherlands. She warned that “the (warrants) of arrest issued by the International Criminal Court will be legally insignificant” for Russia.
Also targeted by an arrest warrant from the ICC, the Russian commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, assured that Moscow would “keep working”.
“It is nice that the international community has valued our work to help the children of our country, and that we do not leave them in areas of military operations and take them out”she quipped, quoted by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti.
As for former Russian President Dmitry Medvedevhe went so far as to compare, on Twitter, the arrest warrant to toilet paper. “The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin. No need to explain where this paper should be used”he wrote in English, ending his message with a toilet paper emoticon.
The boss of the RT channel, the armed wing of the Kremlin’s propaganda abroad, Margarita Simonian, has half-threatened any country that wants to arrest Vladimir Putin. “I would like to see the country that will arrest Putin under the Hague decision. Eight minutes more or less would last the flight to his capital”she wrote on Twitter, in an apparent reference to the speed of Russian missiles.
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Without surprise, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the decision “historical” of the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin for war crimes.
“A historic decision, which marks the beginning of a historic responsibility”Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video posted on Telegram.
Just like the UK which welcomed on Friday the issuance by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for the war crime of “illegal deportation” of Ukrainian children. “We welcome the step taken by the independent ICC to hold those at the top of the Russian regime, including Vladimir Putin, to account,” British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said on Twitter.
The head of European diplomacy talked about“an important decision”re the war crime of “illegal deportation” of Ukrainian children.
This decision “is only the beginning of the process to bring Russia and its leader to account for the crimes and atrocities they are committing in Ukraine. There can be no impunity”supported Josep Borrell from Skopje.
