The International Criminal Court plans to open two war crimes cases related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and seek arrest warrants for others, the New York Times reported Monday, citing current and former officials familiar with the decision, but who were not authorized to speak publicly on the subject, Reuters writes. According to some diplomats and experts, it is possible that Russian President Vladimir Putin will be charged.

An ICC prosecutor is expected to ask a judge to approve warrants against several Russians he accuses of abducting children and teenagers from Ukraine and sending them to re-education camps in Russia, as well as deliberately attacking civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, a source told conditions of anonymity.

A judge or panel, the Guardian reports, will decide whether the legal standards for issuing arrest warrants have been met or whether investigators need more evidence. It is not clear who the court planned to indict in each case.

In June, Ukraine’s former prosecutor general told Reuters he hoped the ICC would recognize child abduction as genocide.

Russia strongly denies that its military forces committed crimes in Ukraine. It claims they are not deliberately targeting civilians and says they are providing humanitarian aid to those who want to flee Ukraine voluntarily.

The cases are the first international indictments since the start of the conflict, the NYT reported, according to the Guardian.

The news comes days after the Pentagon was accused of blocking the transfer of US information about Russian war crimes in Ukraine to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The White House and Biden’s State Department support cooperation with the International Criminal Court in The Hague as a means of holding Russian forces accountable for war crimes, but the Defense Department strongly opposes it on the grounds that it would set a precedent that could ultimately turn against American soldiers.

Vladimir Putin may face charges

According to some diplomats and experts, it is possible that Russian President Vladimir Putin will be indicted because the ICC does not recognize immunity for any head of state in cases of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide.

However, according to some experts, the likelihood of a trial remains low, given that the ICC cannot judge in absentia, and Russia is unlikely to extradite its officials.

The first case, according to some knowledgeable officials, concerns kidnappings widely covered in the press, about the brutal treatment of Ukrainian children, from toddlers to teenagers.

Under the Kremlin-backed program, they were taken out of Ukraine and placed in housing to obtain Russian citizenship or sent to re-education camps, according to the NYT and researchers.

Some of them come from orphanages or home teams.

Moscow presents this program as a humanitarian mission to protect Ukrainian children who were orphaned and abandoned during the war.

Russian Children’s Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, a spokeswoman for the program, began sending children to Russia weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February 2022 and regularly appears on television to promote adoption.

In May, Vladimir Putin signed a decree on accelerating the acquisition of Russian citizenship by Ukrainians.

Karim Khan publicly announced his intention to open this case, stressing that the illegal transfer of children to Russia or the occupied territories of Ukraine is a priority of his investigations.

This month he visited a now-empty “orphanage” in southern Ukraine, and his office released a photo of him sitting among empty beds.

“You can’t treat children as war booty,” he condemned after this visit.

According to a report released in February by Yale University and the US State Department’s Conflict Monitor program, at least 6,000 children from Ukraine are being held in 43 camps in Russia, and the actual number may be higher.

The National Intelligence Service of the Government of Ukraine estimated that at the beginning of March, there will be more than 16,000 children.

“There’s been a lot of attention on this issue, and prosecuting it as a crime will cause a lot of backlash,” said Mark Ellis, head of the International Bar Association.

“Forcibly transporting civilians across the border is prohibited, and in times of war it can be a war crime. It can also constitute a crime against humanity if it is part of a general and systematic policy. Deportation of children can also be part of genocidal intent,” she emphasizes.

In the second case, the ICC prosecutor must review the ongoing Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure, including water supply, natural gas and power plants, located far from hostilities and not considered legitimate military targets, News.ro reports.