Zelensky applauded the decision and referred to it as a “historic choice, from which historic responsibilities will begin” in his evening address to the country.
We have an important international justice ruling today.
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Putin in a case with a real chance of success,’ he stated.
The leader of the terrorist nation and a different Russian officer are now formally suspected of committing a war crime.
The illegal transfer of thousands of our children to the territory of the terrorist state is known as the deportation of Ukrainian children.
‘Over 16,000 cases of forced deportation of Ukrainian children by the occupier have already been recorded in criminal proceedings investigated by our law enforcement officers.
‘But the real, full number of deportees may be much higher.’
He added: ‘It would be impossible to commit such a criminal operation without the order of the top leader of the terrorist state.
‘Separating children from their families, depriving them of any opportunity to contact their relatives, hiding children on the territory of Russia, throwing them in remote regions – all this is an obvious state policy of Russia, state decisions and state evil. Which begins precisely with the top official of this state.’
The warrant for Mr Putin and another for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, relate to the alleged trafficking of children across the border into Russia.
ICC president Piotr Hofmanksi said: ‘It is forbidden by international law for occupying powers to transfer civilians from the territory they live in to other territories.
‘Children enjoy special protection under the Geneva Convention.’
Under article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), ‘Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group’ is considered to be an act of genocide.
US President Joe Biden said Mr Putin had ‘clearly committed war crimes’ and the warrant, although not recognised in the US, was ‘justified’ and made ‘a very strong point’.
His remarks came after UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said it was essential that those at the top of the regime in Moscow were held to account for the atrocities which have taken place since the invasion a year ago.
In a statement posted on social media, Mr Cleverly said: ‘Those responsible for horrific war crimes in Ukraine must be brought to justice.
‘We welcome the step taken by the independent ICC to hold those at the top of the Russian regime, including Vladimir Putin, to account.
‘Work must continue to investigate the atrocities committed.’
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions, also backed the move.
‘Today’s announcement sends an important message: there will be no hiding place for Putin and his cronies and the world is determined to make them pay for what they have done,’ he said.
‘These cases are just the tip of the iceberg. One day Putin will face justice: until then, the focus of all who believe in Ukraine’s liberty and freedom must continue to be on ensuring her victory.’
While there is no immediate prospect of Mr Putin facing arrest, legal experts have pointed to the examples of Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic and Liberia’s president Charles Taylor as international leaders who wound up in the dock in The Hague.
Former Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi was also overthrown and murdered by his own people just four months after being issued an arrest warrant by the ICC- footage of which reportedly left a strong and consequential impression on Putin.
Dominic Raab, the Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, told the BBC: ‘It is, I suspect, going to be a long journey but people said that about Yugoslavia and Rwanda and many of those people responsible for the carnage ended up in the dock of a court.
‘In the short term it will be very hard for President Putin to move around the world because there are so many countries who are parties to the ICC who will be duty bound to arrest him.’