Zelenskiy hails ICC move, blames Putin for child deportations

March 17 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that the International Criminal Court's decision to issue an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin was historic and blamed Putin for the deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak via phone, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine March 16, 2023. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS

"This is an historic decision which will lead to historic accountability," he said in his nightly video address. The real number of deported children could be "far more" than 16,000, he said, and said their deportations constituted a policy of "state evil which starts precisely with the top official of this state."

He added, "It would have been impossible to enact such a criminal operation without the say-so of the man at the helm of the terrorist state."

Reporting by Elaine Monaghan

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