The arguments justifying calling Vladimir Putin a war criminal stem from a combination of his alleged command responsibility as the head of the state and the International Criminal Court's (ICC) formal indictment for specific crimes related to the war in Ukraine.
The case for calling him a war criminal is divided into three main categories under international law:
1. The Crime of Aggression
The primary argument against Vladimir Putin is for initiating the Crime of Aggression—the "supreme international crime"—by launching a full-scale, unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
This act violates Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, which requires member states to refrain from the use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.
While the ICC currently faces jurisdictional issues prosecuting the Crime of Aggression against Russia's leadership (as Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute), many nations and international legal experts recognize the invasion itself as the foundational criminal act.
2. International Criminal Court (ICC) Arrest Warrant
On March 17, 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, holding him allegedly responsible for two specific war crimes committed in Ukraine.
The warrant alleges responsibility for the following:
Unlawful Deportation of Population (Children): The mass removal of Ukrainian children from occupied areas of Ukraine.
Unlawful Transfer of Population (Children): The transfer of these children to the Russian Federation.
Justification for Individual Responsibility
The ICC warrant states there are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for these acts for two reasons:
Direct Involvement/Joint Commission: He allegedly committed the acts directly, jointly with others, and/or through others.
Failure to Exercise Proper Control (Command Responsibility): He allegedly failed to exercise proper control over the civilian and military subordinates who committed or allowed the commission of the crimes while under his effective authority.
3. Broader War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity
Human rights organizations (like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch) and international investigative bodies have documented a litany of additional crimes allegedly committed by Russian forces and leadership that fall under the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute.
These accusations include:
Directing Attacks Against Civilian Objects: The widespread and systematic targeting of civilian infrastructure, including residential buildings, hospitals, schools, and energy infrastructure, which are protected under the laws of war.
Indiscriminate Attacks: The use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects (such as indiscriminate shelling and missile strikes) in densely populated civilian areas, causing excessive incidental harm.
Torture and Sexual Violence: Reports of widespread torture, rape, enforced disappearances, and summary executions of civilians and Ukrainian prisoners of war in occupied territories (e.g., Bucha, Izium).
Forced Detention and Filtration: The mass detention and abusive screening, often called "filtration," of Ukrainian civilians, sometimes followed by forced transfer to Russia.
These documented actions—the systemic nature of which indicates a policy rather than isolated incidents—provide the factual evidence used to argue for Putin's ultimate responsibility.
