The Hague — The International Criminal Court said on Friday it had issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes for his alleged involvement in the abduction of children from Ukraine.
The court said in a statement that Putin was “allegedly responsible for the war crime of the illegal deportation of the population (children) and the illegal transfer of the population (children) from the occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”
It also issued a warrant on Friday for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children's Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, on similar charges.
The ICC said its pre-trial assembly found there were “reasonable reasons to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of the unlawful deportation of a population and the unlawful transfer of a population from the occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, with prejudice. Ukrainian child.”
DEVELOPMENT: More details will be added to this report as they become available.
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