Will Russia Ever Pay a Price for Ukraine War Crimes?

ICC Prepares to Issue Arrest Warrants Over Russian War Crimes – The International Criminal Court (ICC) is reportedly preparing to open two war crime cases and issue arrest warrants over the abduction of Ukrainian children to Russia.

The prosecutor at the court is reportedly preparing to issue warrants against Russians considered responsible for the practice of sending Ukrainian children to holding facilities and later housing them with Russian families across the border or sending them to so-called “summer camps.”

Karim Khan, a British barrister who serves as the Prosecutor at the ICC, is expected to ask pretrial judges to approve arrest warrants based on evidence gathered by several international bodies.

It comes after Khan first opened an investigation into war crimes committed by Russian forces and private mercenaries in Ukraine following the invasion in February last year.

According to the New York Times, the ICC will open one case into the abduction of Ukrainian children and another on Russia’s ruthless bombardment of civilian infrastructure and energy facilities across Ukraine.

The Times reported that it is not clear whom the court intends to charge in both cases, and when asked to confirm that requests had been made for the arrest warrants, the office of the prosecutor refused to comment.

What Is the International Criminal Court? 

The ICC is a permanent and international tribunal established by the Rome Statute, a treaty that was signed by 123 countries.

The court is located in The Hague, Netherlands, and is the first court of its kind to have the power to investigate and prosecute individuals who are accused of serious international crimes.

The ICC typically prosecutes the most serious crimes, including crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide, and the crime of aggression.

While the ICC works with the United Nations, it is not part of the international group and is governed by the Assembly of States Parties.

How It Works

As a first step, Khan will present charges to pretrial judges who will determine whether the cases meet the necessary legal standards to issue warrants for the arrests of those deemed to be responsible for the crimes.

If the pretrial judges don’t believe that the legal standards have been met, more evidence may be collected before moving forward with the prosecutions again.

If the warrants go ahead, the ICC may request the arrest and surrender of those accused under Article 89 of the Rome Statute.

The court depends on the cooperation of member countries to extradite those accused of crimes, or found guilty of those crimes.

Because not all states have signed and ratified the Rome Statute, including Russia and Ukraine, the court’s investigations and eventual trials may ultimately be for nothing.

While Moscow signed the Rome Statute in 2000, the Kremlin never ratified the agreement to become a member of the court, and in 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the withdrawal of his country from the process of joining the court.  

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Jack Buckby is 19FortyFive’s Breaking News Editor. He is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.