ICC arrest warrant for Putin: Can the Russian President actually be arrested?

Rubbishing the charges, Russia says it does not recognise the ICC

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ ITDC NEWS : The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes. The charges are focused on the abductions of Ukrainian children. The ICC said in a statement that Putin "is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of (children) and that of unlawful transfer of (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation."

This is the first time that the global court has issued an arrest warrant against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. Rubbishing the charges, Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia does not recognise the ICC.

What are the charges against Putin

The ICC has charged Putin over Russia’s treatment of Ukrainian children under two articles of the Rome Statute, which established the court: unlawful deportations of civilians, and unlawfully moving them from occupied Ukraine into Russia. The court also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for Children's Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation.

Last week Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy referred to “kidnapping, forced adoption and re-education of Ukrainian children” as “a war crime and a crime against humanity”. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called for a “concerted international effort” to return forcibly deported children and urged Russia to publish information on their whereabouts. Ukraine’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights, Daria Gerasymchuk told AFP that Ukraine has identified 43 children’s camps in Russian cities, adding that children “are being moved around all the time”. Gerasymchuk added that 16,000 children have been children deported to Russia since the start of the invasion. Ukraine has managed to bring back 308 children. Not just orphaned children or those in Ukraine's institutional homes, Russia has also forcibly separated children from parents in the border regions, according to reports. These children are then allegedly placed in Russian foster homes and registered as Russian citizens.