Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images
President Joe Biden said that the arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the Russian president Vladimir Putin by war crimes in Ukraine it is “justified” despite the fact that neither the United States nor Russia recognize the authority of the international body.
“I think it’s justified,” Biden said Friday night as he answered questions on the South Lawn of the White House before leaving on Marine One. “But the question is, we don’t recognize it internationally either. But I think he has a strong point.”
Asked if Putin should be tried by the international tribunal in The Hague, Biden said: “He has clearly committed war crimes.”
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin on Friday for illegally deporting Ukrainian children to Russia. An arrest warrant was also issued for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s children’s commissioner.
The court said for the deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia without the consent of their families “there are reasonable grounds to believe that Putin bears individual criminal responsibility” for the alleged crimes, for having committed them directly together with others and for “his inability to exercise adequate control over the civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts”.
The ICC charges, which relate to the alleged practice, are the first to be formally brought against Russian government officials since it began its war against Ukraine last year.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky thanked the ICC for its “historic” decision
International Criminal Court issues warrant of arrest for Putin. The historic decision, from which historical responsibility will begin. pic.twitter.com/cUW0WbeGKJ
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 17, 2023
The Kremlin said it finds the very fact of raising the issue “scandalous and unacceptable.”
The White House, in a statement released Friday, welcomed the “accountability of war crimes perpetrators” but stopped short of fully endorsing the ICC arrest warrant.
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• The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin