Hungary blocked the EU statement on The Hague Tribunal warrant for Putin's arrest — Bloomberg

Hungary has blocked a joint statement by European Union member states on an international arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Because of Budapest's veto, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, instead released a statement on his own behalf.

This is reported by Bloomberg, citing sources. The country also did not sign the joint statement of EU justice ministers.

"The EU sees the decision by the ICC as a beginning of the process of accountability and holding Russian leaders to account for the crimes and atrocities they are ordering, enabling or committing in Ukraine," Borrell said in a statement released Sunday night.

On Monday, EU justice ministers issued their own statement in support of the ICC decision, which Hungary has not signed.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for Putin and his Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, for alleged war crimes related to the abduction of children from Ukraine.

Officials in Kyiv are investigating more than 16,000 alleged cases of forced deportation of minors, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week, and so far, only about 300 have been returned home.

As OBOZREVATEL reported, on March 17, 2023, Putin received official status as a suspect in the international crime of illegally forcibly transferring Ukrainian children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation. The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova.

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