Daily Times

Arrest warrants were issued by judges at the International Criminal Court for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Commissioner for Children’s Rights. In a statement, the ICC says they are suspected of the war crime of unlawfully deporting children, from Ukraine to Russia.

There are reasonable grounds to believe President Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for such deportations, the statement says, adding it is alleged to have taken place since he launched the full- scale invasion of Ukraine last February.

It says the same thing of his children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova. Stay with us as we bring you the latest reaction and analysis. Russia has repeatedly denied accusations of atrocities during its invasion of Ukraine.

The Kremlin has also repeatedly said it does not recognise the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and says it bears no obligations under it. Responding to the arrest warrant against Putin, a Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman says it has “no significance whatsoever”.

“The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view,” spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on her Telegram channel. “Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it. Russia does not cooperate with this body, and possible ‘recipes’ for arrest coming from the International Court will be legally null and void for us.” Putin’s spokesman: This is outrageous and unacceptable On a brief telephone conference call with journalists tonight, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov had this response to the ICC arrest warrant for President Putin:

“The very question [raised by the ICC] is outrageous and unacceptable. Russia, along with several other states, does not recognise the jurisdiction of that court and thus any decisions of this kind for Russia are null and void from a legal point of view.”Peskov declined to take any further questions on the subject.