The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian premier, Vladimir Putin, for war crimes committed during his illegal invasion of Ukraine.

The court focused on the charge of unlawful deportation of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, which amounts to a war crime. Whilst the Russian foreign ministry has dismissed the warrant as “legally and void”, it has acknowledged the transferring of 2,000 children. Ukrainian officials claim however that this figure stands at 16,000 cases. A warrant was issued for Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, the public face of the Kremlin-sponsored program that transfers children out of Ukraine.

Speaking to the BBC, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan noted “children can't be treated as the spoils of war, they can't be deported".

Responding to the court’s warrant, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in a video statement:

“It would be impossible to carry out such a criminal operation without the order of the top leader of the terrorist state”.

Whilst it is unlikely that Russia’s president will stand trial in the Hague, the warrant means that Putin could face arrest in any of the 123 countries that have signed on to the ICC, thereby restricting his travel. The ICC is reliant upon signatory countries to arrest those whom the court has issued warrants for.

New York Times, London bureau chief, Mark Landler has described the court’s decisions as “a  highly symbolic step that deepened his isolation and punctured the aura of impunity that has surrounded him since he ordered troops into Ukraine a year ago”.