Russia says ICC's arrest warrant against Putin has 'no meaning'

Russian leaders on Friday strongly criticised the International Criminal Court (ICC) for issuing an arrest warrant against their President Vladimir Putin, for war crimes because of his alleged involvement in abductions of children from Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said a possible trial of any Russians at the ICC remains a long way off, as Moscow does not recognise the court's jurisdiction. "The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view," she said.

''Who would have thought 15 years ago that in the West taking care of children, saving them and helping them would become a criminal offence,'' she added, as per Reuters.

Ukraine also is not a member of the court, but it has granted the ICC jurisdiction over its territory and ICC prosecutor Karim Khan has visited four times since opening an investigation a year ago.

Putin faces arrest warrant for Ukraine war crimes

The court said in a statement that Putin "is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation."

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 court statement said that "there are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility" for the child abductions "for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (and) for his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts.

After his most recent visit, in early March, ICC prosecutor Khan said he visited a care home for children two kilometers from frontlines in southern Ukraine. "The drawings pinned on the wall ... spoke to a context of love and support that was once there. But this home was empty, a result of alleged deportation of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation or their unlawful transfer to other parts of the temporarily occupied territories," he said in a statement.

"As I noted to the United Nations Security Council last September, these alleged acts are being investigated by my Office as a priority. Children cannot be treated as the spoils of war." And while Russia rejected the allegations and warrants of the court as null and void, others said the ICC action will have an important impact.