The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an international court located in the Hague, Netherlands, created in 1998 by the Rome Statute. Both Russia and Ukraine signed the Statute in 2016 following a report that classified Russia’s annexation of Crimea as an occupation; however, Ukraine accepted the Court’s jurisdiction on its territory in 2014, allowing the Court to investigate alleged crimes committed during the course of the Russo-Ukraine war. The court received total cooperation from the Ukraine authorities.
On March 17, 2023, following an investigation of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, and for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russian Commissioner for children’s rights alleging responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation and transfer of children during the Russo-Ukraine War. The warrant against Putin is the first against the leader of a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded and occupied parts of Ukraine in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukraine War, which begin in 2014. During the invasion, Russia has abducted thousands of Ukraine children in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine and has deported them to Russia.
In August 2022, Gyunduz Mamedov, Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine in 2019-2022, said that the deportation of Ukraine children to Russia (more than 300,000 according to the Russian Federation) is the most promising way to prove genocide.
On June 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Russian politician and farmer defense minister Sergei Shoigu and Russian army general Valery Gerasimov. Shoigu and Gerasimov are accused of missile attacks on civilian targets, including power plants.
Economic interests were also a motive for Russia’s attack on Ukraine and it’s annexation of the southeast. Control of the lithium deposits in the Donbas and Ukraine ‘s grain wealth would give Russia a “monopoly on the world marketâ€. In 2022, Russian General Vladimir Ovchinsky confirmed that the “Russian special operation†aimed to seize Ukraine lithium deposits.
According to a study published in mid-2022 by Canadian think tank SecDev, Russia seized energy reserves, metals and minerals worth at least $12.4 trillion in Donbas, including 41 coal fields (65 percent of Ukraine’s coal reserves), 27 natural gas fields, 9 oil fields, 6 iron ore deposits, two titanium ore deposits, a strontium deposit, a uranium deposit, a gold deposit, and a large limestone quarry. The total value of raw material stocks in Ukraine is estimated at over 26 trillion dollars. The value of lithium and rare earths in Ukraine is estimated at over $26 trillion dollars. The Russian elite, especially Russian generals, had invested assets and property in Ukraine for money laundering purposes before the invasion.
Wikipedia: “International Criminal Court Arrest Warrants for Russian Leaders†and “Russian Invasion of Ukraine
