The Kremlin expressed surprise today that the United States appeared ready to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court whose prosecutor issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Galland and three Hamas leaders for war crimes.

Karim Khan, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, said in a statement issued after more than seven months of war in Gaza that he had credible evidence to support that the five men “bear criminal responsibility” for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

US President Joe Biden called the move “outrageous”, while US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said it would jeopardize negotiations aimed at reaching a truce and freeing the hostages.

Some US lawmakers called on the US to impose sanctions against the court. In 2020, the US had imposed sanctions against an ICC prosecutor.

“In general, the situation is more than strange regarding the attitude of the US and its intention to use sanctions methods even at the expense of the ICCKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

In March of last year, the ICC issued an arrest warrant against President Vladimir Putin on charges of war crimes.

Russia says the arrest warrant against Putin is a gratuitous attempt by the West to tarnish Russia’s reputation and denies it has committed war crimes in Ukraine.

Ukraine says Russia has committed war crimes, while Moscow claims the West has ignored Ukrainian crimes, a charge Kiev denies.

Last year, President Biden called the ICC’s decision to issue an arrest warrant against Putin justified.

The US has handed the ICC details of Russia’s alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

Russia has not signed the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, and therefore Moscow does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction.

“We are not part of the relevant Statute and therefore do not recognize the court’s jurisdiction,” Peskov said.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, the Kremlin has commented that President Volodymyr Zelensky is seeking greater Western involvement in the conflict because Ukrainian forces are at too much of a disadvantage on the front line.

On Monday, Zelensky told Reuters he was pushing Western partners to get more directly involved in the war by helping intercept Russian missiles over Ukraine and allowing Kiev to use Western weapons against enemy military equipment massed near the border.

Asked about the interview with Reuters, Peskov said that some Ukrainian officials, including Zelensky, had at times in recent days been “sinking into hysteria”.

“This is due to the excessively unfavorable position of the forces of the Kiev regime at the front,” Peskov told reporters, adding that even if the flow of Western military aid increased it would not change the big picture at the front, where Russian forces advance and criticized Ukraine for bombing civilian areas in Russia.