Russia, Ukraine, and the ICC
How Russia's invasion of Ukraine transformed the ICC's role and the legal challenges of prosecuting a great power.
The ICC and Ukraine
Ukraine is not a party to the Rome Statute but accepted ICC jurisdiction through a declaration covering events from 2013 onward. When Russia invaded in February 2022, an unprecedented 43 states parties referred the situation to the ICC, triggering a rapid investigation. The Prosecutor opened an investigation within days, making the Ukraine situation the fastest-moving in ICC history.
The ICC issued its first arrest warrant in the situation in March 2023: for President Vladimir Putin and Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for the war crime of unlawful deportation of children from occupied Ukrainian territories to Russia. The warrant was notable for targeting a sitting head of state of a nuclear-armed major power, something the ICC had never done at this scale.