Russian President Vladimir Putin faces a potential war crimes trial after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant on Friday. Polish government spokesman Piotr Muller said Putin should be tried as a war criminal along with those responsible for atrocities in Ukraine.

"This is an important decision from the court, which points to war crimes committed by the Russian apparatus of violence," Muller said in a statement to state-run news agency PAP.

The ICC's decision follows a report which found that Russias had transferred thousands of Ukrainian children to Russian families as part of a campaign to justify the war in Ukraine.

The report contended that many of these moves were conducted without parental consent and at times forcibly.

This marks the first time an international court has issued an arrest warrant for any sitting head of state since the ICC's founding in 2002.

The charges come as a result of a long-running conflict between Russian forces and