Moscow considers the decision meaningless for Russia

ICC issues arrest warrant for Putin

  • Russia has stressed that it has no obligations under the resolution. Archival

  • One of the submarines of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea. Archival

image

Yesterday, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of responsibility for war crimes committed in Ukraine, while Moscow considered that the decision is meaningless for Russia, and stressed that it does not cooperate with this body and is not a party to the Rome Statute of the Court.

Pre-Trial Chamber II has issued arrest warrants for two people in connection with the situation in Ukraine, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Maria Alekseeevna Lvova Belova, Russia's Presidential Commissioner for the Rights of the Child, the court said in a statement.

In its first warrant against Ukraine, the ICC called for Putin's arrest on "suspicion of unlawful deportation of children and illegal transfer of persons from the territory of Ukraine to the Russian Federation," and issued a second warrant separately for Maria Belova on the same charges.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stressed that the ICC's decision to issue an arrest warrant for Putin makes no sense to Russia.

Zakharova said on her Telegram account: "The decisions of the International Criminal Court are meaningless for our country, including from a legal point of view."

"Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and has no obligations under it. Russia does not cooperate with this body, and possible arrest warrants issued by the International Court of Justice would be legally invalid for us."

In addition, Moscow announced yesterday that nuclear submarines of the Russian Navy will launch ballistic missiles for test purposes, while the Kremlin vowed to destroy the fighters that Poland and Slovakia will send to Ukraine.

The commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy, Admiral Nikolai Evmenov, said in an interview with the newspaper "Krasnaya Zvezda" on the eve of the "Submarine Sailing Day": "Five years ago Yuri Dolgoruky, the first strategic missile submarine of the Yuri project, successfully launched a barrage of four Bulava ballistic missiles, and in the future we will also launch ballistic missiles for test purposes when needed. Submarines are ready to perform such missions."

In 1990, during Soviet exercises in the Barents Sea, a Northern Fleet nuclear submarine fired 16 ballistic missiles at the test site, an unprecedented record for the domestic submarine fleet.

According to the admiral, the fleet at that time had to prove the effectiveness of the naval component of the nuclear triad, and Evminov said: "Today we do not need to prove anything to anyone." "The Russian Navy's exercises in the Arctic will continue, the exercises will be conducted in the Arctic region with the participation of submarines and other naval forces, we will work on the ascent of submarines in the polar regions, rescue operations using naval aviation, military technology and scientific experiments," Efminov added. He noted that the Arctic is one of the main theaters of Russian submarines, adding: "It is not only a climatic zone, but also still a training ground and a home. Today, navigation under the ice, and the use of weapons in the ice is a great art mastered by submarine crews in a very limited number of countries, and we are the best among them."

He pointed out that the Russian Navy intends to equip its submarines with modern hypersonic weapons, pointing out that there are currently 10 types of submarines in service. The Kremlin vowed yesterday that fighter jets sent by Poland and Slovakia to Ukraine would be destroyed, stressing that Western arms shipments to Kiev would not change Russia's military goals. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "The provision of this military equipment, as we have already said, will not change the outcome of the special military operation. All this equipment will be destroyed."

The Kremlin's comments came after the Slovak government approved a plan to give Ukraine its fleet of Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets. The decision made Slovakia the second NATO member state to agree to meet the Ukrainian government's continuous calls for warplanes to help defend against Russian forces, as Polish President Andrzej Duda announced yesterday that his country would give Ukraine about 12 MiG-29 fighter jets.