Vladimir Putin is facing an arrest warrant for war crimes issued by the International Criminal Court because of his alleged involvement in abductions of children from Ukraine.
The court said in a statement that the Russian president "is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation."
It also issued a warrant on Friday for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children's Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, on similar allegations.
The ICC said that its pre-trial chamber found there were "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."
Moscow has previously said it does not recognise the jurisdiction of the ICC.
"We do not recognise this court; we do not recognise its jurisdiction," Vladimir Putin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists in Moscow on Tuesday.
On Monday, prosecutors at the ICC said they would formally open two war crimes cases and issue arrest warrants for several Russians deemed responsible for the mass abduction of Ukrainian children and the targeting of Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.
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