Putin arrest warrant: Biden welcomes ICC's war crimes charges

US President Joe Biden has welcomed the International Criminal Court's issuing of an apprehension warrant against his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

The ICC accused President Putin of committing warfare crimes successful Ukraine - thing President Biden said the Russian person had "clearly" done.

The claims absorption connected the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia since Moscow's penetration successful 2022.

Moscow has denied the allegations and denounced the warrants arsenic "outrageous".

It is highly improbable that overmuch volition travel of the move, arsenic the ICC has nary powers to apprehension suspects without the co-operation of a country's government.

Russia is not an ICC subordinate country, meaning the tribunal has nary authorization there.

However, it could impact Mr Putin successful different ways, specified arsenic being incapable to question internationally. He could present beryllium arrested if helium sets ft successful immoderate of the court's 123 subordinate states.

Mr Putin is lone the 3rd president to beryllium issued with an ICC apprehension warrant.

President Biden said that, portion the tribunal besides held nary sway successful the US, the issuing of the warrant "makes a precise beardown point".

His medication had already "formally determined" that Russia had committed warfare crimes during the ongoing struggle successful Ukraine, with Vice-President Kamala Harris saying successful February that those progressive would "be held to account".

The United Nations besides released a report earlier this week that recovered Moscow's forced removal of Ukrainian children to areas nether its power amounted to a warfare crime.

In a connection connected Friday, the ICC said it had tenable grounds to judge Mr Putin committed the transgression acts directly, arsenic good arsenic moving with others. It besides accused him of failing to usage his statesmanlike powers to halt children being deported.

Russia's commissioner for children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, is besides wanted by the ICC for the aforesaid crimes.

ICC authoritative Karim Khan has said the warrants were "based upon forensic evidence, scrutiny and what's been said by those 2 individuals".

The tribunal had initially considered keeping the apprehension warrants a secret, but decided to marque them nationalist to effort and halt further crimes being committed.

"Children can't beryllium treated arsenic the spoils of war, they can't beryllium deported," Mr Khan told the BBC.

"This benignant of transgression doesn't request 1 to beryllium a lawyer, 1 needs to beryllium a quality being to cognize however egregious it is."

Mr Khan besides pointed retired that cipher thought that Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian person who went connected proceedings for warfare crimes successful Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo successful the 1990s, would extremity up successful The Hague to look justice.

"Those that consciousness that you tin perpetrate a transgression successful the daytime, and slumber good astatine night, should possibly look astatine history," Mr Khan said.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said immoderate of the court's decisions were "null and void" and erstwhile Russian President Dmitry Medvedev compared the warrant to toilet paper.

Russian absorption activists person welcomed the announcement. Ivan Zhdanov, a adjacent state of jailed absorption person Alexei Navalny, has tweeted that it was "a symbolic step" but an important one.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed his acknowledgment to Mr Khan and the ICC for their determination to property charges against "state evil".