ICC’s arrest warrant against Putin may not be a watershed moment in the Russian invasion of Ukraine

The tool of ICC arrest warrant and proceedings overarchingly remains a futile exercise, only to attract international condemnation against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has officially surpassed a year. 

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Why did the International Criminal Court issue a show cause notice to Putin?

IN what can be termed a historic move, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant against the Russian President, Vladimir Putin and the Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova. This is the first time that an arrest warrant against a head of the State of a permanent member of the United Nations (UN) Security Council has ever been issued, and only the third time that a serving president of a country has been the target of such an arrest warrant. The earlier cases were against Omar al-Bashir (Sudan) and Muammar Gaddafi (Libya).

Staying true to the character it has adopted towards international law since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began last year, the Kremlin has refused to acknowledge the ICC arrest warrant. It terms the warrant as "void" since Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute that established the ICC, and does not submit to the jurisdiction of the ICC. Ukraine, on the other hand, has hailed the warrant as a historic decision for Ukraine.