The International Criminal Court will ask for increased funding for the investigation of war crimes in Ukraine

The International Criminal Court (ICC) plans to ask for additional funds to investigate Russiaʼs war crimes in Ukraine. So far, the budget has not been increased, despite the large amount of work in Ukraine.

The Guardian writes about it.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Karim Khan will make such a request on Monday at a conference in London organized jointly by the governments of Great Britain and the Netherlands with the aim of raising funds to finance the work of the International Criminal Court investigating war crimes in Ukraine.

Currently, there are 40 investigators working in Ukraine, but the funding for their work has not increased.

More than 40 countries will take part in the conference, organized by the Deputy Prime Minister of Great Britain Dominic Raab and the Minister of Justice and Security of the Netherlands Dylan Jeshilhoz-Zegerius. The United Kingdom provides an additional 395 thousand pounds to finance the work of the ICC.

In Russia, they continue to react to the decision of the International Criminal Court to issue a warrant for the arrest of President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin says they are calm about it and continue to work. Instead, former President and Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmytro Medvedev called the courtʼs decision "the final collapse of the system of international law" and even threatened to hit the ICC building with missiles.

In China, they called on the court to take a "just position" in relation to Russian President Putin. They emphasized that China will continue to "take an objective and fair position in the Ukrainian crisis and play a constructive role in peace negotiations." At the same time, they also urged the court to avoid "double standards" and to " respect the immunity " of heads of state.

• On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the President of Russia Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian Presidentʼs Commissioner for Childrenʼs Rights. They are accused of directing the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, which is a war crime. Children were taken out without the permission of relatives and Ukraine, in Russia they were granted citizenship. For this purpose, Putin passed a number of decrees that simplified these procedures, and Lvova-Belova carried out his orders. Together with their parents, up to 150 000 children could be deported to Russia. This is the fifth time in its history that the International Court of Justice has issued such a warrant to a sitting president.
• 123 countries that have ratified the Rome Statute are now bound to arrest Putin. These are all European countries, all South American countries, including some members of BRICS — an organization in which Russia is a member. Also, members of the ICC include Japan, Australia and Canada, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Mongolia and many other countries.