(Paris) The International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Friday it had issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for his responsibility for war crimes committed in Ukraine since the Russian invasion.
“Today, 17 March 2023, Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court issued warrants of arrest for two individuals in connection with the situation in Ukraine: Mr. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Ms. Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova” , presidential commissioner for children’s rights in Russia, the ICC said in a statement.
Mr. Putin “is allegedly responsible for the war crime of illegal deportation of population [children] and illegal transfer of population [children] from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation,” the court added.
“The crimes were allegedly committed in occupied Ukrainian territory at least from February 24, 2022,” the ICC continued, adding that there were “reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Putin is personally responsible for the aforementioned crimes.”
On Monday, the New York Times reported that the ICC was preparing to prosecute Russians for transferring children to Russia and for deliberate strikes on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said earlier this month after a visit to Ukraine that the alleged child abductions were “under investigation on a priority basis”.
The ICC, created in 2002 to judge the worst crimes committed in the world, has been investigating for more than a year into possible war crimes or crimes against humanity committed during the Russian offensive.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine are members of the ICC, but Kyiv has accepted the court’s jurisdiction over its territory and is working with the prosecutor.
Russia denies war crimes allegations. Experts admitted she was unlikely to hand over any suspects.
Kyiv obtained 17 Soviet-designed MiG-29 fighters in two days, which will replace the planes lost since the start of the war, but should not fundamentally change the balance of power on the ground.
On Thursday, Warsaw announced the delivery “in the coming days” of four aircraft to Ukraine. On Friday, Slovakia followed suit with 13 others.
So far, the West has remained reluctant to deliver fighter jets for fear of an escalation with Moscow. But the taboos have been gradually falling for a year, as in January when Kyiv’s allies validated the dispatch of heavy tanks.
Ukraine thus recovers planes of old design that the Ukrainians can take off immediately.
“It’s a concern for consistency: level with the most urgent to ensure the air defense of the territory, with devices that the Ukrainians already know”, sums up an officer of a European air force. “It’s an out-of-the-box solution. »
On modern aircraft, the theoretical training time is 6 months for an experienced pilot, possibly reducing to 3 months. However, this time saving comes with operational limitations.
“It’s a hunter with short legs, with a limited range”, summarizes to AFP Pierre Razoux, academic director of the Mediterranean Foundation for Strategic Studies (FMES). “If he is heavily armed, he would have to be stationed in central Ukraine to be able to strike in the Donbass, so in a fairly vulnerable environment. »
As always in this war, the numbers are questionable. The Oryx website claims, based on visual evidence, that Kyiv has lost its 61 fighters, including its 18 MiG-29s, over the past year. But some have been repaired. The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) for its part evokes about twenty MiG-29 in activity.
Ukrainian air force is “surprisingly active at this stage of the conflict,” said Nick Brown of British private intelligence firm Janes. The devices delivered will “provide a timely replacement for those lost on the battlefield and ease the pressure on the maintenance of existing devices.”
Pierre Razoux notes for his part that “the logic will rather be to engage them in protection, where there is a need for interception capacity: above Kyiv, Odessa, Kherson or even Kharkiv”.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky still has to convince Westerners to deliver modern aircraft: American F15, F16, F18, F35, French Rafale, European Eurofighter, capable of intervening in support of ground offensives, with deep strikes of the enemy.
The Chinese J16 and J20 are inaccessible, given the links between China and Russia.
The spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuriy Ignat, did not fail to recall his shopping list: “We need F-16s. But the MiGs will help build our capabilities.”
Washington has, however, defused any hope in this direction: the delivery of American planes “is not on the table”, recalled John Kirby, spokesman for the White House. Madrid confirmed a similar position on Friday.
The Netherlands does not, however, rule out selling a few F-16s. And after refusing to deliver Eurofighter Typhoons or F-35s in January, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak then promised to train Ukrainian fighter pilots “to NATO standards”.
But while he asked the military to study possible aircraft deliveries, he only mentioned a “long-term” option.
Nick Brown argues that Slovak and Polish fighters are equipped with NATO-standard electronic systems and that the Ukrainian air force already uses American AGM-88 HARM air-to-surface missiles.
“But in the end, these gifts are added to the existing one without changing the capacity balance of power”, he assures. “Ukraine’s ability to deploy air power and truly impact the battlefield remains constrained. »
Moscow, for its part, minimizes the event, believing that these hunters cannot “affect the outcome” of the conflict. “Of course, this equipment will be destroyed,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added.
