THE International Criminal Court said today that it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes because of his alleged involvement in abductions of children from Ukraine.

The ICC also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the Russian President, on similar allegations.

The court said that it found “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 denied allegations of any war crimes in Ukraine.

Former Palestinian negotiator Hanan Ashrawi tweeted: “Wow! So soon ICC? Israel’s impunity has lasted for 75 years & war crimes & crimes against humanity are still being committed by a racist criminal settler-colonial regime in full view. 

“You’d think that Putin deserves at least the same courtesy.”

Independent political commentator Sarah Abdallah tweeted: “When will the ICC issue an arrest warrant against Obama for war crimes in Libya, Syria and Yemen? Or against Bush for murdering over a million innocents in Iraq?”

Neither Russia, Ukraine nor the United States is a signatory to the ICC.