The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin. This is a serious political blow for the Russian dictator and the entire aggressor country.

Viktor Chumak, Chief Military Prosecutor of Ukraine (in 2019-2020) and Head of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine (in 2020), told Channel 24 about this. According to him, after the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Putin officially became a suspect in the war crime of kidnapping children.

The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children's Rights under the President of Russia. As Chumak noted, in general, the issuance of such warrants is a secret.

“There can be many arrest warrants”

However, in the case of Putin and Lvovo-Belova, the International Criminal Court made an exception. These warrants were announced publicly to prevent a recurrence of war crimes in the future. According to the ex-prosecutor, the ISS will not be limited to two warrants.

There will be much more warrants, because now we are talking only about the organizers of the crime (Putin and Lvova-Belova – Channel 24). There are also perpetrators and co-perpetrators involved in the crime at different levels. In particular, these are the Russian military who participated in the export of Ukrainian children,” Chumak emphasized.

He explained that since the warrants are secret, they can be announced when a person is detained. Therefore, according to Chumak, we will not find out so quickly who else can end up in the dock along with Putin.

Viktor Chumak spoke about the consequences of the announcement of a warrant for Putin's arrest: watch the video

Putin may be charged with the crime of genocide

The former chief military prosecutor of Ukraine noted that Putin and Lvov-Belova are suspected of illegally deporting Ukrainian children from the occupied territories. However, over time, the accusation may be reclassified as a crime of genocide.

Forcibly deporting children from one ethnic group to another in order to re-educate them is part of the crime of genocide, Chumak stressed.

He added that there are indeed a lot of signs of the crime of genocide against Ukrainians. These are the sayings of Putin himself, and the statements of propagandists, and the actions of the Russian invaders in Ukraine.

Putin's entourage will live in fear

The ex-head of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine noted that there is one important nuance in the case with a warrant for Putin's arrest – a dictator can be convicted only with his personal presence in the dock. And it will not be so easy to ensure this as long as the current political regime remains in Russia.

The decision of the ISS is really an incentive to change the regime, because many people around Putin do not know whether warrants have been issued against them or not,” Chumak said.

He added that now people close to Putin will live in fear. After all, any of them can be arrested during a trip to one of the 123 countries that are parties to the Rome Charter and are required to comply with the decisions of the ISS.

Arrest warrant for Putin: in short

• On March 17, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children Maria Lvova-Belova.
• Prosecutor General Andrey Kostin explained that Putin's arrest warrant means that outside of Russia, the Kremlin dictator must be arrested and brought to trial.
• The German government has declared its readiness to arrest Putin if he ends up on the territory of this country.