International Criminal Court issues war crimes arrest warrant for Putin

The International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague in The Netherlands on Friday issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, alleging war crimes related to his illegal war against Ukraine. The Republican Party’s two presidential frontrunners, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, this week were accused of offering “support” for the Russian President.

The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation.

Putin is “allegedly responsible for the war crime of” unlawfully deporting children from Ukraine and bringing them to Russia, the ICC said, ABC News reports.

“The ICC said that its pre-trial chamber found there were ‘reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children,'” The Associated Press also reports.

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A United Nations investigation led to a report alleging Russia has committed a “wide range of war crimes,” ABC News adds, along with possible crimes against humanity.

U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, on Wednesday issued a warning on the direction of the Republican Party’s presidential frontrunners.

“I worry that DeSantis and Trump’s support for Putin and opposition to Ukraine is part in partial [sic] of a broader lack of enthusiasm for democracy and self-governance,” Murphy said, according to The Hill.

The Hill notes Trump “praised Putin as Russia was about to invade Ukraine last year, saying that Putin was a ‘genius’ who was going to go into Ukraine as a ‘peacekeeper.'”

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DeSantis this week called Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine a mere “territorial dispute.”

Trump on Thursday issued a statement on video downplaying Putin’s actions, saying Russia is not a threat to the United States, but some Americans he described as “horrible, USA-hating people.”