Kremlin.ru, via Wikimedia Commons
Members of the European Parliament have called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant for Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko, calling out Belarus for serving an “accomplice” role in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The arrest warrant should be issued in part because Lukashenko, who has been allowing Russian forces to use Belarus as a staging ground for attacks in Ukraine, has played a part in Russia’s forcible deportation of Ukrainian children, the members of parliament, who serve as the European Union’s law-making body, said in a report released Tuesday.
The call comes after news that more than 2,100 Ukrainian children have been kidnapped from Russian-occupied cities in Ukraine and taken to Belarus, according to an opposition figure who shared information with the ICC in recent weeks.