London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Ukraine war: ICC 'undeterred' by arrest warrant for chief prosecutor

Ukraine war: ICC 'undeterred' by arrest warrant for chief prosecutor

The International Criminal Court says it is "undeterred" by Russia putting its chief prosecutor on a wanted list.
It comes two months after the ICC's Karim Khan issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In a statement on Saturday, the court said the move was an attempt to undermine its "lawful mandate to ensure accountability for the gravest crimes".

Russia, which is not an ICC member, previously described the warrant against Mr Putin as being "void".

Mr Khan, a British lawyer, issued the arrest warrant for President Putin in March. It alleged he is responsible for war crimes, and has focused its claims on the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.

A warrant was also issued for Russia's child rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova on similar charges.

More than 16,000 children are thought to have been forcibly transferred to Russia from Ukraine since the war began, according to officials in Kyiv.

The ICC said at the time there were reasonable grounds to believe both Mr Putin and Ms Lvova-Belova bore individual criminal responsibility.

The Kremlin's investigative committee in turn announced this week that it would begin an investigation into Mr Khan for the "criminal prosecution of a person known to be innocent".

In a statement on Saturday, the Hague-based ICC said it was "aware and profoundly concerned about unwarranted and unjustified coercive measures reportedly taken against ICC officials".

Branding the measures "unacceptable", the court said it would not be prevented from continuing to "deliver on its independent mandate".

Mr Khan is yet to comment on the action against him.

Meanwhile, the special representative of the United Nations secretary-general for children and armed conflict, Virginia Gamba, came under separate scrutiny after she reportedly met with Ms Lvova-Belova in Moscow.

The Russian was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying the conversation was "constructive and sincere".

Rights groups and senior officials took issue, though, with some suggesting the meeting was inappropriate.

"Ukrainian victims deserve to see Lvova-Belova behind bars in The Hague, not meeting with high-level UN officials," Balkees Jarrah, associate director in the International Justice Programme at Human Rights Watch, said.

Last September, Ms Lvova-Belova complained that some children removed from the city of Mariupol "spoke badly about the [Russian President], said awful things and sang the Ukrainian anthem."
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×