ICC issues arrest warrants for Russian army chief over Ukraine strikes

Hague: The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Russia’s former defense minister and its military chief for attacking civilian targets in Ukraine.

On Tuesday, the court based in The Hague announced that the warrants were issued because judges found reasonable grounds to believe that the men were responsible for “missile strikes carried out by the Russian armed forces against the Ukrainian electric infrastructure” from October 10, 2022, until at least March 9, 2023.

The ICC accused former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Valery Gerasimov of war crimes and the crime against humanity of inhumane acts.

“During this period, a large number of strikes against numerous electric power plants and substations were carried out by the Russian armed forces in multiple locations in Ukraine,” the court statement said. The judges determined that there are reasonable grounds to believe the alleged strikes were directed against civilian objects.

“For those installations that may have qualified as military objectives at the relevant time, the expected incidental civilian harm and damage would have been clearly excessive compared to the anticipated military advantage,” the statement added.

Russia has consistently claimed that Ukraine’s energy infrastructure is a legitimate military target and denies targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure.

Last year, the court also issued a warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine.

In March this year, the court issued arrest warrants for two senior Russian military officers on charges related to attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, which judges said were carried out “pursuant to a state policy.”

Reporting from Amsterdam, Step Vassen noted that the court’s announcement was unexpected, as there was no prior indication that these arrest warrants were being considered.

“This means all the countries they [the two Russian officials] travel to that have signed the Rome Statute will have to arrest them and bring them to The Hague,” Vassen said, adding that the officials would likely avoid countries that are party to the treaty.

Russia is not a member of the court, does not recognize its jurisdiction, and refuses to hand over suspects.

Putin replaced Shoigu as defence minister in a cabinet shake-up in May as he began his fifth term as president. He appointed Shoigu as secretary of Russia’s Security Council.

The Security Council said on Tuesday that the ICC’s arrest warrant for Shoigu was part of a hybrid war against Moscow, the state-run news agency TASS reported.