Arrest Warrant Against Vladimir Putin Over Ukraine War Crime Allegations

Russia is not a party to the ICC so it was unclear if or how Vladimir Putin could ever end up in the dock.

Both warrants are related to children's rights. (File)

The Hague: The International Criminal Court on Friday announced an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on the war crime accusation of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children.

The Hague-based ICC said it had also issued a warrant against Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's presidential commissioner for children's rights, on similar charges.

Moscow dismissed the orders as "void." Russia is not a party to the ICC so it was unclear if or how Putin could ever end up in the dock.

War-battered Ukraine welcomed the ICC announcement, with President Volodymyr Zelensky hailing the "historic decision."

The court's shock notice came hours after other news with the potential to significantly impact Russia's war on Ukraine, including a Moscow visit from Chinese leader Xi Jinping and more fighter jets for Kyiv's forces.

More than 16,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia since the February 24, 2022 invasion, according to Kyiv, with many allegedly placed in institutions and foster homes.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan told AFP that Putin was now liable for arrest if he set foot in any of the court's more than 120 member states.

He said the arrest warrants were "based upon forensic evidence, scrutiny and what's been said by those two individuals".

"The evidence we presented focused on crimes against children. Children are the most vulnerable part of our society," said Khan.

The ICC said judges found there were "reasonable grounds" to suspect Putin's criminal responsibility and grant Khan's application for the warrants, which were made back on February 22.

ICC President Piotr Hofmanski said the execution of the warrants "depends on international cooperation".

'Historic decision'

During a meeting with Putin in mid-February, Lvova-Belova said she adopted a 15-year-old child from the devastated Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.

"Now I know what it means to be a mother of a child from Donbas -- it is a difficult job but we love each other, that is for sure," she told Putin.

She added that "we evacuated children's homes into safe areas, arranged rehabilitation and prosthetics for them and provided them with targeted humanitarian assistance."

The arrest warrant for Putin, a sitting head of state of a UN Security Council member, is an unprecedented step for the ICC.

Set up in 2002, the ICC is a court of last resort for the world's worst crimes, when countries cannot or will not prosecute suspects.

Prosecutor Khan launched an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine just days after Russia's invasion.

Khan recently posted pictures from a visit to Ukraine alongside empty cots in an empty children's care home, and said that investigating alleged child abduction was a "priority".

"It's poignant," he said. "One sees empty cribs and empty beds juxtaposed with paintings by those children on the walls."

Zelensky, who met Khan on his visit, welcomed the arrest warrants for his nemesis in Moscow.

"A historic decision from which historic responsibility will begin," Zelensky said.

Ukraine's Western allies also hailed the move.

US President Joe Biden said the warrant was "justified," and "makes a very strong point," while noting that the United States is not a member of the ICC.

"There is no doubt that Russia is committing war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine, and we have been clear that those responsible must be held accountable," a State Department spokesperson said. "The ICC Prosecutor is an independent actor."

Britain called the decision "welcome" and the European Union said it was "just the start." Human Rights Watch said it was a "big day for the many victims" of Russian forces.

'Void'

The Kremlin dismissed the warrants.

"Russia, just like a number of different countries, does not recognise the jurisdiction of this court and so from a legal point of view, the decisions of this court are void," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev compared the warrants to toilet paper, while foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said they "have no meaning" for Russia.

The ICC's Khan however said there were "so many examples of people that thought they were beyond the reach of the law".

"Look at (Slobodan) Milosevic or Charles Taylor or (Radovan) Karadzic or (Ratko) Mladic," he said, referring to a series of war criminals from the former Yugoslavia, and former Liberian president Taylor, who have faced justice.

Earlier in the day, Beijing and Moscow announced that Chinese leader and strategic ally Xi would be in Russia next week to sign accords ushering in a new era of ties.

The United States has accused China of mulling arms shipments to support Russia's campaign -- claims Beijing has strongly denied.

The arrest warrants come a day after UN investigators said Russia's forced transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children to areas under its control amounts to a war crime.

The investigators said parents and children had spoken of youngsters being informed by Russian social services that they would be placed in foster families or adopted.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the ICC, but Kyiv has accepted the court's jurisdiction and is working with Khan's office.

Russia denies allegations of war crimes by its troops. Experts have said it is unlikely it would ever hand over any suspects.

With fighting still raging in Ukraine, Kyiv welcomed the news Friday that Slovakia will donate 13 MiG-29 warplanes.

Ukraine has long requested fighter jets from Western allies, although it is seeking primarily modern US-made F-16s.

WHO Calls On China To Be Transparent In Sharing COVID-19 Origin Data

The Huanan market in central China's Wuhan city was the epicentre of the pandemic.

The WHO chief called for greater transparency. (File)

United Nations/Geneva: The WHO has criticised China for withholding data related to samples taken at a market in Wuhan in 2020 that could have provided vital information about the Covid-19 pandemic's origins, calling on Beijing to be transparent and to share results of investigations it conducts.

The Huanan market in central China's Wuhan city was the epicentre of the pandemic. From its origin there, the SARS-CoV-2 virus rapidly spread to other locations in Wuhan in late 2019 and then to the rest of the world.

"Every piece of data relating to studying the origins of COVID-19 needs to be shared with the international community immediately. These data could have - and should have - been shared three years ago," World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva on Friday.

"We continue to call on China to be transparent in sharing data and to conduct the necessary investigations and share the results. Understanding how the pandemic began remains both a moral and scientific imperative," he said.

Ghebreyesus said that last Sunday, the global health agency was made aware of data published on the GISAID database in late January, and taken down again recently.

"The data, from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, relates to samples taken at the Huanan market in Wuhan, in 2020," he said.

Ghebreyesus said while the data was online, scientists from a number of countries downloaded the data and analysed it.

"As soon as we became aware of this data, we contacted the Chinese CDC and urged them to share it with WHO and the international scientific community so it can be analysed," he said, adding that WHO also convened the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens, or SAGO, which met on Tuesday.

"We asked researchers from the Chinese CDC and the international group of scientists to present their analyses of the data to SAGO. These data do not provide a definitive answer to the question of how the pandemic began, but every piece of data is important in moving us closer to that answer," he said.

In a report Thursday, the New York Times said that an international team of virus experts said they had "found genetic data from a market in Wuhan, China, linking the coronavirus with raccoon dogs for sale there." The NYT report said that the genetic data was drawn from swabs taken from in and around the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market starting in January 2020, "shortly after the Chinese authorities had shut down the market because of suspicions that it was linked to the outbreak of a new virus." While the animals had been cleared out from the market, researchers took swabs from the walls, floors, metal cages and carts used for transporting animal cages.

"In samples that came back positive for the coronavirus, the international research team found genetic material belonging to animals, including large amounts that were a match for the raccoon dog," the report said, quoting three scientists involved in the analysis.

The report noted that after the international team came across the new data, it reached out to Chinese researchers who had uploaded the files with an offer to collaborate. However, after that, the sequences disappeared from GISAID.

Globally, there have been more than 760,360,900 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including over 6,873,400 deaths, according to the World Health Organisation.

WHO said that three years later, while there are almost 7 million reported deaths from COVID-19, "we know that the actual number of deaths is much higher." Ghebreyesus expressed confidence that this year "we will be able to say that COVID-19 is over as a public health emergency of international concern." He however noted that "we are not there yet" given that last week, there were still more than five thousand reported deaths from COVID-19.

"That's five thousand too many for a disease that can be prevented and treated. Even as we become increasingly hopeful about the end of the pandemic, the question of how it began remains unanswered," he said.

"We have a duty to ourselves to end this pandemic as soon as possible. We have a duty to those we have lost to find out how it started," he said.

The NYT report said that the "jumbling together" of genetic material from the virus and the animal does not prove that a raccoon dog itself was infected.

"And even if a raccoon dog had been infected, it would not be clear that the animal had spread the virus to people. Another animal could have passed the virus to people, or someone infected with the virus could have spread the virus to a raccoon dog," the report said.

"But the analysis did establish that raccoon dogs - fluffy animals that are related to foxes and are known to be able to transmit the coronavirus - deposited genetic signatures in the same place where genetic material from the virus was left," according to the scientists.

They noted that the evidence was "consistent" with a scenario in which the virus spilled into humans from a wild animal.

The new evidence comes weeks after a new intelligence assessment from the US Department of Energy pointed out that an "accidental laboratory leak" in China most likely caused the pandemic.

"But the genetic data from the market offers some of the most tangible evidence yet of how the virus could have spilled into people from wild animals outside a lab. It also suggests that Chinese scientists have given an incomplete account of evidence that could fill in details about how the virus was spreading at the Huanan market," the NYT report said.

Bihar YouTuber Arrested For Fake Videos Of Migrant Workers Attacked In Tamil Nadu

The EOU has registered three cases against Kashyap and others on the charges of "indulging in spreading fake videos of migrants being killed and beaten up in Tamil Nadu on social media".

The EOU had on March 6 registered its first FIR in connection with the case.

Patna: Popular YouTuber Manish Kashyap from Bihar, who has several cases filed against him by the Bihar and Tamil Nadu police for allegedly making fake videos of Bihari migrant workers in the southern state, was arrested on Saturday morning. This is the third arrest in the case.

Kashyap was arrested at the Jagdishpur police station of Bettiah in the West Champaran district, where he surrendered after the Bihar Police, and it's Economic Offences Unit, reached his home to attach his properties. He is accused of circulating false and misleading videos about residents of Bihar working in Tamil Nadu.

"Kashyap, wanted by Bihar Police and Tamil Nadu Police in fake news matter of labourers issue in the southern state, surrendered before the police on Saturday fearing arrest and attachment of his belongings," a statement issued by the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of Bihar Police said.

The EOU has registered three cases against Kashyap and others on the charges of "indulging in spreading fake videos of migrants being killed and beaten up in Tamil Nadu on social media".

The state police had formed a special team after obtaining arrest warrants for Manish Kashyap and Yuvraj Singh Rajput on March 15, and conducted raids in other states to arrest them.

"Six teams constituted by the EOU along with Patna and Champaran Police were continuously conducting raids on his locations at various places and hideouts since yesterday (Friday). He surrendered at Jagdishpur police station of Bettiah on Saturday, fearing arrest and other legal action," the police statement added.

Earlier, the police had found evidence of financial irregularities against Manish Kashyap alias Tripurari Kumar Tiwari, and froze all his bank accounts. Police had also charged him for spreading misleading information through his official Twitter handle by posting a fake picture of his arrest.

The EOU had on March 6 registered its first FIR in connection with the case and booked four persons, including Kashyap.

EOU officials have already arrested Aman Kumar from Jamui in connection with its investigation into the first FIR. Those named in that FIR included Aman Kumar, Rakesh Tiwary, Yuvraj Singh Rajput, and Manish Kashyap.

JS Gangwar, Additional Director General of Bihar Police (Headquarters), had told reporters last week that the EOU probe has found that 30 fake videos of migrants getting beaten up and killed in Tamil Nadu were widely shared on social media, spreading panic among the labourers and forcing them to flee the southern state.

The Tamil Nadu Police has also registered 13 cases to probe the matter.

Earlier, the Bihar government had also sent a four-member team of top officials to Tamil Nadu to coordinate with officers who were investigating the matter in the southern state.