MOSCOW: Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, who was accused by the International Criminal Court (ICC) alongside President Vladimir Putin of war crimes in Ukraine, said on Tuesday that the ICC’s allegations were false and unclear.
The Hague-based ICC on March 17 issued arrest warrants for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian commissioner for children’s rights, for the war crime of unlawfully deporting children from areas of Ukraine occupied by Russian forces.
The ICC said it had information that hundreds of children had been taken from orphanages and children’s care homes in areas of Ukraine claimed by Russia. Some of those children, the ICC said, have been given up for adoption in Russia.
Lvova-Belova told a news conference in Moscow that the consent of children’s parents was always sought and that the commission always acted in the best interests of the child.
If there were any specific problems with specific families, she said she was ready to help solve them.
“It is unclear to the presidential commissioner for children’s rights what the International Criminal Court’s allegations specifically consist of and what they are based on,” her commission said in a separate statement about its work released before the news conference.
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