The International Criminal Court, in The Hague, Netherlands, on Nov. 7, 2019.The Associated Press
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is planning to seek the arrest of Russian officials for forcibly deporting children from Ukraine and targeting civilian infrastructure, a source said on Monday, in what would be the first international war crimes cases arising from Moscow’s invasion.
The source said the arrest warrants could include the crime of genocide and were expected to arrive in the “short term” if the court prosecutor’s request was approved by a pretrial judge at the Hague-based court.
The office of the prosecutor at the ICC declined to comment.
Russia’s Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Moscow would be certain to reject any arrest warrants against any of its officials. But an international war crimes prosecution could deepen Moscow’s diplomatic isolation and make it difficult for those accused to travel abroad.
Russia denies deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, saying its attacks are all intended to reduce Kyiv’s ability to fight. It has not concealed a program under which it has brought thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia but presents it as a humanitarian campaign to protect orphans and children abandoned in the conflict zone.
Kyiv says thousands of deported Ukrainian children are being adopted into Russian families, housed in Russian camps and orphanages, given Russian passports and brought up to reject Ukrainian nationality and consider themselves Russians.
The U.N. genocide convention defines “forcibly transferring children of the group to another group” as one of five acts that can be prosecuted as genocide. Asked if the ICC charges against the Russian officials could include genocide, the source said: “It looks that way.”
Kyiv has conducted several war crimes prosecutions of Russian soldiers for individual incidents such as killings or rapes in occupied territory. The charges discussed by the ICC prosecutors could go higher, targeting officials responsible for policies rather than just perpetrators of acts on the ground.
On the ground, both sides described relentless fighting in and around Bakhmut, a small, ruined city in eastern Ukraine that has become the main focus of a Russian winter campaign.
Near Kreminna, north of Bakhmut, Ukrainian soldiers said they were repelling intensified attacks by increasingly professional soldiers, while heavy equipment was being brought closer to the front line by the Russians.
In a forest some eight kilometres from the front, cannons boomed, targeting enemy positions to the northeast. Distant explosions rumbled constantly in the distance, a sign of heavy fighting.
Reuters reporters saw a soldier being brought from the front with a badly wounded leg. He was stabilized in a van with a splint and painkillers before being taken to a medical centre further from the front to be treated.
“Two or three weeks ago the fighting was at its peak, but it has calmed down a bit,” said Mykhailo Anest, a 35-year-old medic before treating the wounded soldier. “There is a lot of artillery and mortar fire.”
On a bad day he would see 20 wounded troops in a single day from his battalion, he told Reuters.
The months-long fight for Bakhmut has become Europe’s bloodiest infantry battle since World War Two.
Russian forces led by the Wagner private army have captured the city’s eastern part but so far failed to encircle it.
“All enemy attempts to capture the town are repelled by artillery, tanks, and other firepower,” Ukraine’s Colonel-general Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of ground forces who has vowed not to withdraw, was quoted as saying by Ukraine’s Media Military Centre.
Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Sunday the situation was “tough, very tough”.
Moscow says taking it would be a major success, opening a path to capture the rest of the surrounding Donetsk region, a central war aim.
Kyiv says it has decided not to pull out because it is inflicting huge losses on the Russian assault force which will make it easier to stage a counterattack later this year.
As the fighting ground on in eastern Ukraine, Moscow appeared on the cusp of one long-sought diplomatic breakthrough: several sources told Reuters that China’s President Xi Jinping could visit Russia as soon as next week, an earlier-than-expected response to a long-standing invitation.
President Vladimir Putin has touted such a visit as a show of support, but it could be overshadowed by plans for Mr. Xi to speak by video link to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky for the first time since the invasion.
The plans for talks between Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Xi were reported by the Wall Street Journal and Reuters could not immediately confirm them.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Kremlin said it had nothing to announce yet. Ukraine’s president’s office did not immediately respond.
“As a rule, announcements of official foreign visits are co-ordinated synchronously by mutual agreement of the parties,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “When there is such readiness, we will let you know.”
A visit by Mr. Xi to Russia would be a major event for Mr. Putin, who portrays the war in Ukraine as a conflict with the combined might of the West. Russia relies on China to buy oil and gas it can no longer sell in Europe.
But a video meeting with Mr. Zelensky could be an even bigger coup for the Ukrainians, who want Beijing to remain neutral rather than firm up support for Moscow. Mr. Zelensky has called on Mr. Xi to speak to him.
China has declined to ascribe blame for the war while opposing Western sanctions against Russia. It unveiled a proposal in February for a peace plan, met with skepticism in the West but praised in Moscow and cautiously welcomed by Mr. Zelensky.
China and Russia struck a “no limits” partnership in February, 2022, weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine, and the two sides have reaffirmed the strength of their ties in public.