www.washingtonpost.com Open in urlscan Pro
23.37.45.67  Public Scan

Form analysis
0 forms found in the DOM

Text Content

Accessibility statementSkip to main content
Search Navigation
Democracy Dies in Darkness

Subscribe

Sign in



Next articles
War in Ukraine
War in Ukraine
Ukraine live briefing: China’s Xi departs Russia with no clear progress tow...
War in Ukraine
Live updates:Xi and Putin sign agreements as Japan’s leader visits Ukraine
Today's WorldView • Analysis
Xi’s Russia trip marks the arrival of a more ambitious ‘Global China’
Europe
Visit by Japan’s Kishida to Kyiv gives sharp contrast to Xi in Russia
Military
U.S. will speed transfer of Abrams tanks to Ukraine, Pentagon says
Europe
Xi and Putin showcase alliance but offer no path to peace in Ukraine
Europe
Xi’s cocoon in Moscow: A Chinese-owned hotel over Red Square opulence
Europe
Another art museum chief quits as Russia pressures cultural institutions
Today's WorldView • Analysis
Xi meets Putin in show of anti-West unity, but there’s unease, too
Europe
Xi and Putin hold talks in Russia, trading compliments, amid war in Ukraine
Europe
Live updates:Xi and Putin end initial meeting in Moscow, affirm ties amid
Ukraine war
Europe
Drone strikes, sabotage, shelling: Russia’s war on Ukraine comes to Russia ...
Europe
What is China’s relationship with Russia, and with Ukraine?
War in Ukraine
Ukraine live briefing: Russia has ‘high’ expectations for Xi Jinping’s visi...
Europe
As Xi visits Russia, Putin sees his anti-U.S. world order taking shape
Europe
‘Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich’ — Russian conscripts decry ‘criminal orders’
War in Ukraine
Ukraine live briefing: Grain deal extended; Putin’s ICC arrest warrant is j...
Europe
War forces thousands of disabled Ukrainians into institutions
War in Ukraine
Ukraine live briefing: Turkey backs Finland’s NATO bid; ICC issues arrest w...
Europe
ICC issues arrest warrant for Putin over war crimes in Ukraine
Advertisement


Close
The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness
War in Ukraine
Live briefing
Verified videos
Donbas region
Russian combat capabilities
HIMARS
War in Ukraine
Live briefing
Verified videos
Donbas region
Russian combat capabilities
HIMARS
Europe


ICC ISSUES ARREST WARRANT FOR PUTIN OVER WAR CRIMES IN UKRAINE

By Claire Parker
and 
Robyn Dixon
Updated March 17, 2023 at 4:20 p.m. EDT|Published March 17, 2023 at 11:59 a.m.
EDT

Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on March 15. (Sputnik/Pavel
Bednyakov/Pool via Reuters)

Listen
6 min
Comment on this story
Comment
1794
Gift Article
Share

Judges for the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued on Friday arrest
warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and another top Russian official —
the court’s first such decision related to the war in Ukraine.


Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for the latest updates on Russia’s
war in Ukraine.ArrowRight


Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, bear
individual responsibility for the war crimes of “unlawful deportation” and
“unlawful transfer” of children from occupied areas of Ukraine after Russia
invaded the country last year, the judges allege.



What are war crimes, and is Russia committing them in Ukraine?

The warrants come amid intense international pressure to hold Putin accountable
for atrocities committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, and marked a highly
unusual decision by the court during an ongoing conflict.

Story continues below advertisement



The move is largely symbolic: Russia, like the United States, does not accept
the ICC’s jurisdiction. The court does not try people in absentia — and
international law experts say it’s unlikely, barring major political change in
Russia, for Putin to end up in front of the court.

Justice ministers met in London on March 20 to build support for the
International Criminal Court after it issued an arrest warrant for Russia's
Vladimir Putin. (Video: The Washington Post)

But the warrants could create difficulties for those named to travel to
countries that cooperate with the court. And for Putin — the first head of state
of a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council for whom the ICC has issued
an arrest warrant — it’s a major reputational blow, as his war in Ukraine
continues into its second year with no end in sight.

Advertisement


Top Ukrainian and European officials hailed the announcement as a crucial step
toward holding Russia accountable. In an address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelensky called the warrants an indictment of Russia’s “state policy, state
decisions, state evil.”

Ukrainians struggle to find and reclaim children taken by Russia

Putin issued a decree last May to make it easy for Russians to adopt Ukrainian
children. Ukrainian officials are investigating more than 16,000 incidents of
forced removal of children from Ukraine to territory held by Russia, according
to Andriy Kostin, Ukraine’s prosecutor general.

Story continues below advertisement



Lvova-Belova, who reports to Putin directly, has been the official face of
Moscow’s effort to bring Ukrainian children to Russian territory. She has worked
with colleagues to hand dozens of children from Donetsk over to Russian families
and coordinate the transfer of children in orphanages in Donetsk and Luhansk, in
occupied eastern Ukraine, to the custody of Russian citizens, according to the
Kremlin.

Advertisement


A religiously devout mother of 22 children who openly advocates stripping
children of their Ukrainian identities, Lvova-Belova herself adopted an orphaned
teenage boy, Filip, from the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol. In August, she
told a conference in the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok that Filip had to
change his Ukrainian ways.

Lvova-Belova has insisted that none of the children have Ukrainian families,
while Ukrainian officials say all of them belong in Ukraine. As of November,
more than 10,000 Ukrainian children had been reported by relatives, family or
friends to have been taken to Russia without their parents, said Daria
Herasymchuk, Ukraine’s top children’s rights official, said in November.

Story continues below advertisement



Number of children’s camp

facilities in Russia

According to a report by the Yale School of Public Health, the Russian
government is operating 43 facilities that have held at least 6,000 children
from Ukraine.

6 camps

1

Arctic

Ocean

Crimea

UKR.

Moscow

TUR.

RUSSIA

KAZAK.

MONGOLIA

IRAN

CHINA

Data as of Feb. 14. Crimea was annexed

by Russia in 2014. Donetsk and Luhansk in Ukraine

are self-proclaimed separatist republics in

eastern Ukraine.

Source: Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale School of

Public Health

JÚLIA LEDUR/THE WASHINGTON POST

Number of children’s camp

facilities in Russia

According to a report by the Yale School of Public Health, the Russian
government is operating 43 facilities that have held at least 6,000 children
from Ukraine.

6 camps

1

Arctic

Ocean

UKR.

Moscow

Crimea

RUSSIA

TUR.

KAZAK.

IRAN

MONGOLIA

CHINA

Data as of Feb. 14. Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014.

Donetsk and Luhansk in Ukraine are self-proclaimed separatist

republics in eastern Ukraine.

Source: Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale School of Public Health

JÚLIA LEDUR/THE WASHINGTON POST

Number of children’s camp facilities in Russia

According to a report by the Yale School of Public Health, the Russian
government is operating 43 facilities that have held at least 6,000 children
from Ukraine.

6 camps

1

Arctic

Ocean

UKR.

Moscow

Crimea

RUSSIA

TURKEY

KAZAKHSTAN

MONGOLIA

IRAN

CHINA

Data as of Feb. 14. Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014. Donetsk and Luhansk in
Ukraine

are self-proclaimed separatist republics in eastern Ukraine.

Source: Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale School of Public Health

JÚLIA LEDUR/THE WASHINGTON POST

Rights groups have called the transfers a deliberate Russian strategy to destroy
Ukrainian identity.

Advertisement


The United States, Britain, the European Union, Canada, Australia and
Switzerland have imposed sanctions on Lvova-Belova over the forced adoptions of
Ukrainian children. She calls the accusations “fake.”

The arrest warrants, issued swiftly by international law standards, come more
than a year after the ICC’s top prosecutor, Karim Khan, announced a probe into
possible violations of international humanitarian law committed in Ukraine.
While Kyiv is not a party to the court, it had previously accepted the court’s
jurisdiction over its territory.

The International Criminal Court said on Feb. 28 it is investigating possible
war crimes in Ukraine. Experts tell The Post how the legal process works.
(Video: Alexa Juliana Ard/The Washington Post)

“Incidents identified by my office include the deportation of at least hundreds
of children taken from orphanages and children’s care homes,” he said, under
circumstances that “demonstrate an intention to permanently remove these
children from their own country.”

Advertisement

Story continues below advertisement



Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, it is illegal for an occupying power to
forcibly transfer or deport protected people from occupied territory.

The warrants accuse Lvova-Belova and Putin of direct participation in the
abduction and deportation of children, and say Putin is responsible “for his
failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who
committed the acts,” the court said in its announcement.

Some experts and rights advocates have called for top Russian officials to be
prosecuted for crimes against humanity or genocide, in addition to war crimes.
The transfer of children by force can count as an act of genocide under the
Genocide Convention of 1948. But successful prosecution would require
demonstrating an intent to at least partially destroy Ukrainians as a national
group — a more challenging case to prove.

Advertisement

Story continues below advertisement



Kremlin officials dismissed the warrants and vowed not to cooperate.

“The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our
country,” Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry, said on
Telegram Friday.

“No need to explain WHERE this paper should be used,” Dmitry Medvedev, the
deputy head of Russia’s Security Council and the country’s former president,
said in a tweet, alongside a toilet paper emoji.

Theoretically, the 123 states that are party to the ICC should turn Putin over
to the court if he travels to their territory. But Sergei Markov, a former
adviser to Putin and propagandist, wrote on Telegram the warrant would have no
practical effect, since Putin will not visit “hostile countries” anyway.

Story continues below advertisement



It is highly unusual for the ICC to issue arrest warrants for war crimes when
the conflict is ongoing, American University law professor Robert Goldman said —
and “rather unprecedented” to pursue a sitting head of state, though the ICC did
issue arrest warrants for former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir while he was
in power. South Africa came under fire for failing to arrest Bashir when he
traveled to the country.

Analysis: The United States and ICC have an awkward history

The alleged forcible transfer of children is a “very serious war crime,” Goldman
said. But he raised the concern that pursuing legal action against Putin now
could complicate the eventual pursuit of a peace deal.

Advertisement


“It delivers to Ukraine a very strong case to say that as a condition of a
settlement, we’re either not going to deal with the guy who’s wanted for war
crimes, or that this person must be delivered to the ICC to pay for his crimes,”
an unrealistic proposition, Goldman said.

Story continues below advertisement



But other international law experts and rights groups said the arrest warrants
could deter future unlawful conduct and comfort victims of alleged crimes.

It’s not just prosecutions that deliver justice, said Mark Kersten, an expert on
international justice at the University of the Fraser Valley, but “the process
of trying to hold people to account and announcing loudly, from The Hague and
the world: ‘We are on your side, and we believe that what happened to you was an
atrocity.’”

What are crimes against humanity?

Mary Ilyushina, Francesca Ebel, Emily Rauhala, David L. Stern, Natalia
Abbakumova and Beatriz Rios contributed to this report.


ONE YEAR OF RUSSIA’S WAR IN UKRAINE

Portraits of Ukraine: Every Ukrainian’s life has changed since Russia launched
its full-scale invasion one year ago — in ways both big and small. They have
learned to survive and support each other under extreme circumstances, in bomb
shelters and hospitals, destroyed apartment complexes and ruined marketplaces.
Scroll through portraits of Ukrainians reflecting on a year of loss, resilience
and fear.

Battle of attrition: Over the past year, the war has morphed from a multi-front
invasion that included Kyiv in the north to a conflict of attrition largely
concentrated along an expanse of territory in the east and south. Follow the
600-mile front line between Ukrainian and Russian forces and take a look at
where the fighting has been concentrated.

A year of living apart: Russia’s invasion, coupled with Ukraine’s martial law
preventing fighting-age men from leaving the country, has forced agonizing
decisions for millions of Ukrainian families about how to balance safety, duty
and love, with once-intertwined lives having become unrecognizable. Here’s what
a train station full of goodbyes looked like last year.

Deepening global divides: President Biden has trumpeted the reinvigorated
Western alliance forged during the war as a “global coalition,” but a closer
look suggests the world is far from united on issues raised by the Ukraine war.
Evidence abounds that the effort to isolate Putin has failed and that sanctions
haven’t stopped Russia, thanks to its oil and gas exports.















Show more
ChevronDown
1794 Comments
GiftOutline
Gift Article
Understanding the Russia-Ukraine conflict
HAND CURATED
 * Follow the 600-mile front line between Ukrainian and Russian forces
   February 21, 2023
   
   
   Follow the 600-mile front line between Ukrainian and Russian forces
   February 21, 2023
 * Sanctions haven’t stopped Russia, but a new oil ban could cut deeper
   February 15, 2023
   
   
   Sanctions haven’t stopped Russia, but a new oil ban could cut deeper
   February 15, 2023
 * Putin, czar with no empire, needs military victory for his own survival
   February 19, 2023
   
   
   Putin, czar with no empire, needs military victory for his own survival
   February 19, 2023

View 3 more stories




Subscribe to comment and get the full experience. Choose your plan →


View more

Loading...
Advertisement


Advertisement

TOP STORIES
Going Global
Essential reporting and analysis from correspondents around the world.
As G-20 meetings come to India, Modi launches a public relations blitz


Boris Johnson lays out his ‘Partygate’ defense ahead of Parliament grilling


Racism, misogyny rampant in London police force, ‘damning’ report finds


Refresh
Try a different topic

Sign in or create a free account to save your preferences
Advertisement


Advertisement

Company
 * About The Post
 * Newsroom Policies & Standards
 * Diversity and Inclusion
 * Careers
 * Media & Community Relations
 * WP Creative Group
 * Accessibility Statement

Get The Post
 * 
 * Become a Subscriber
 * Gift Subscriptions
 * Mobile & Apps
 * Newsletters & Alerts
 * Washington Post Live
 * Reprints & Permissions
 * Post Store
 * Books & E-Books
 * Newspaper in Education
 * Print Archives (Subscribers Only)
 * Today’s Paper
 * Public Notices

Contact Us
 * Contact the Newsroom
 * Contact Customer Care
 * Contact the Opinions team
 * Advertise
 * Licensing & Syndication
 * Request a Correction
 * Send a News Tip
 * Report a Vulnerability

Terms of Use
 * Digital Products Terms of Sale
 * Print Products Terms of Sale
 * Terms of Service
 * Privacy Policy
 * Cookie Settings
 * Submissions & Discussion Policy
 * RSS Terms of Service
 * Ad Choices

washingtonpost.com © 1996-2023 The Washington Post
 * washingtonpost.com
 * © 1996-2023 The Washington Post
 * About The Post
 * Contact the Newsroom
 * Contact Customer Care
 * Request a Correction
 * Send a News Tip
 * Report a Vulnerability
 * Download the Washington Post App
 * Policies & Standards
 * Terms of Service
 * Privacy Policy
 * Cookie Settings
 * Print Products Terms of Sale
 * Digital Products Terms of Sale
 * Submissions & Discussion Policy
 * RSS Terms of Service
 * Ad Choices









THE WASHINGTON POST CARES ABOUT YOUR PRIVACY

We and our partners store and/or access information on a device, such as unique
IDs in cookies to process personal data. You may accept or manage your choices
by clicking below, including your right to object where legitimate interest is
used, or at any time in the privacy policy page. These choices will be signaled
to our partners and will not affect browsing data.


WE AND OUR PARTNERS PROCESS DATA TO PROVIDE:

Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Select basic ads. Store
and/or access information on a device. Create a personalised ads profile. Select
personalised ads. Create a personalised content profile. Select personalised
content. Measure ad performance. Measure content performance. Apply market
research to generate audience insights. Develop and improve products. View list
of partners

I accept Disable all Manage cookies