The decision of the International Criminal Court in The Hague to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin is justified, President Joe Biden said. Biden noted he believes that Putin is involved in war crimes.
"However, the problem is that it (ICC) is not internationally recognized by us. But in my opinion, they came out with a very strict position," the head of the White House said.
Associated Press sources said that the United States hopes that the court's decision will influence the positions of neutral countries regarding the war in Ukraine. Among them is China - Beijing's "peace plan" to end the war is viewed critically by most countries.
The Hague International Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 17. The Russian president is suspected of illegally deporting children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia. The court also issued an arrest warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children's Rights of Russia.
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, called the "raising of the issue" of the warrant "unacceptable" and said Russia does not recognize the court's jurisdiction, which means the court's rulings are invalid. Lvova-Belova said that the international community has thus "highly" assessed her work in bringing children out of the war zone. She added that she will "continue her work."
ICC is not a United Nations body, its founding document is the 1998 "Rome Statute". Russia also participated in the establishment of the document when the country signed it in 2000. The statute entered into force in 2003. However, in 2016, Moscow decided to withdraw from the agreement. Before that, the court called Crimea's accession to Russia "equivalent to an international armed conflict" between Moscow and Kyiv.
Ukraine also signed the "Rome Statute" treaty but did not ratify it. However, in 2015, the country recognized the court's jurisdiction "over all crimes committed on the territory of Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's military aggression." A total of 123 countries, including China, Turkey, India, and the USA, have ratified the document. The United States participated in discussions on the creation of the court but did not support the treaty in 1998.
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