The arrest warrant for Putin issued by the ICC facilitated the return to Ukraine of children taken by Russia from the occupied territories

The arrest warrant for Putin issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) has facilitated the return to Ukraine of Ukrainian children taken by Russia from the occupied territories. This as reported by Reuters. was stated by the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Dmitry Lubinets,

“After the ICC issued two arrest warrants for Putin and Lvova-Belova, it became easier to return the children,” Lubinets said. “I don’t know what arguments Russia accepts, but they started giving away children. Unsystematically, in small groups, but they began to be given away,” he added.

The last group of eight deported Ukrainian children returned to their homeland on December 6. Negotiations on their return were conducted through the mediation of the Qatari Foreign Ministry. In total, according to Lubinets, 387 children taken by Russia were returned to Ukraine. At the same time, he clarified that the Ukrainian authorities were able to establish the names of 19,545 children taken by Russia from the occupied territories, adding that the real number of deportees may be higher.

In March, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Putin and Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova. They were called responsible for war crimes in the form of the illegal deportation of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia.

Putin later stated that Ukrainian children were not kidnapped from the occupied territories, but were evacuated, saving them from shelling.

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