US President Joe Biden has welcomed the International Criminal Court's issuance of an arrest warrant against his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
The International Criminal Court accused President Putin of committing war crimes in Ukraine, which President Biden claimed the Russian leader had "clearly" done.
The charges centre on the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia following Moscow's invasion in 2022.
Russia has disputed the claims and slammed the warrants as "outrageous".
The measure is unlikely to have any impact because the ICC lacks the authority to arrest people without the cooperation of a country's government.
Russia is not a member of the International Criminal Court, hence the court in The Hague has no jurisdiction over it.
Yet, it may have an impact on Mr Putin in other ways, like as his ability to travel worldwide. He may now be detained if he enters any of the court's 123 member countries.
Mr Putin is only the third president to have an ICC arrest warrant issued against him.
President Biden noted that, while the court also wielded no sway in the US, the granting of the order "makes a very strong point".
"He’s clearly committed war crimes," he told reporters.
His administration had already "formally determined" that Russia had committed war crimes during the crisis in Ukraine, with Vice-President Kamala Harris announcing in February that anyone implicated would "be called to account".
The UN also issued a report earlier this week concluding that Moscow's forced relocation of Ukrainian minors to territories under its control constituted a war crime.
The ICC said in a statement on Friday that it had reasonable grounds to suspect Mr Putin committed the crimes directly as well as in collaboration with others. It also accused him of neglecting to use his presidential authority to prevent the deportation of children.
Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's commissioner for children's rights, is also wanted by the ICC for the same offences.
The warrants were issued "based on forensic evidence, scrutiny, and what those two persons claimed," according to ICC prosecutor Karim Khan.
The court contemplated keeping the arrest warrants private at first, but decided to make them public in order to prevent more crimes from being committed.
"Children can’t be treated as the spoils of war, they can’t be deported," Mr Khan told the BBC.
"This type of crime doesn’t need one to be a lawyer, one needs to be a human being to know how egregious it is."
Mr Khan also stated that no one expected Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian leader who was tried for war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo in the 1990s, to wind up in The Hague to face justice.
"Those that feel that you can commit a crime in the daytime, and sleep well at night, should perhaps look at history," Mr Khan said.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, claimed any judgements made by the court were "null and worthless," while former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev compared the warrant to toilet paper.
The statement has been hailed by Russian opposition activists. Ivan Zhdanov, a close supporter of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny, tweeted that it was "a symbolic move," but one that was significant.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed his appreciation to Mr Khan and the ICC for their decision to file proceedings against "state evil".