US President Joe Biden said that Russian President Vladimir Putin committed war crimes, and the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue a warrant for his arrest was justified. His words are quoted by Reuters.
“He clearly committed war crimes,” Biden told reporters.
The US President stressed that the decision of the court in The Hague to issue a warrant is a "very strong position" and at the same time noted that the US itself does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC.
Decisions of the International Criminal Court are binding on countries that have signed the international treaty that established it in 1998 – the Rome Statute. These are 123 states. The US and Russia are not among them.
On March 17, the International Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children's Rights in the Russian Federation. They are charged with war crimes relating to the forced displacement of children from Ukraine. Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International's deputy director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, told The Insider about the implications this could have for Putin.
