Biden supports the ICC's war crimes accusations and calls for the arrest of Putin.

US President Joe Biden has welcomed the International Criminal Court's issuing of an arrest warrant against his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for committing war crimes in Ukraine. The warrants focus on the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia since Moscow's invasion in 2022. Russia is not an ICC member country, meaning the court has no authority there. However, it could affect Mr Putin in other ways, such as being unable to travel internationally. The ICC said it had reasonable grounds to believe Mr Putin committed the criminal acts directly, as well as working with others.

Russia's commissioner for children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, is also wanted by the ICC for the same crimes. ICC prosecutor Karim Khan has said the warrants were "based upon forensic evidence, scrutiny and what's been said by those two individuals". The court had initially considered keeping the arrest warrants a secret, but decided to make them public to try and stop further crimes being committed. The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, which will remain an alleged criminal until and unless he submits himself for trial or is handed over for trial and acquitted. Sir Geoffrey Nice KC, who led the prosecution in the trial of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, said the warrant would change how foreign leaders view Mr Putin.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said any of the court's decisions were "null and void" and former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev compared the warrant to toilet paper. Russian opposition activists have welcomed the announcement, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed his thanks to Mr Khan and the ICC for their decision to press charges against "state evil".