Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the city of Mariupol after a stop in Crimea, the Kremlin's press service said Sunday, according to Russian news agencies. According to AFP, It was his first trip to the port city in southern Ukraine, which Moscow captured after a long siege.
Earlier on Friday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin, accusing him of being responsible for war crimes committed in Ukraine, news agency Reuters reported. Moscow has constantly refuted charges that its forces committed crimes against its neighbour during the one-year invasion.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin on suspicion of unlawful deportation of minors and the unlawful movement of people from Ukrainian territory to the Russian Federation, the report said. Putin "is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from seized territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation," the court said in a statement.
The United States President Joe Biden said that International Criminal Court's decision to issue arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin is justified, as reported by The Guardian. Biden said that Putin has clearly committed war crimes. “Well, I think it’s justified,” the US president said on Friday, as quoted by The Guardian.
The ICC's pre-trial chamber found "reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children," according to the ICC. Reuters reported earlier this week that the court was set to issue warrants, the first in its inquiry into the Ukrainian conflict.