ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Two Russian Officers Over Missile Strikes on Ukrainian Energy
The International Criminal Court (ICC) said on Tuesday that it had issued arrest warrants for a lieutenant general of the Russian armed forces and a Russian navy admiral for alleged crimes committed in Ukraine from at least 10 October 2022 to at least 9 March 2023.
This is stated in the official report of the International Court of Justice.
We are talking about the commander of the long-range aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Sergei Kobylash, and the commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Viktor Sokolov. They are responsible for the war crime of attacking civilian objects and the war crime of causing excessive incidental injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects, as well as a crime against humanity in the form of inhumane acts under Article 7(1) of the Rome Statute.
According to the court, there are reasonable grounds to believe that the individuals are individually criminally responsible for the above crimes, for acting jointly and through others and ordering the commission of the crimes, and for failing to exercise proper control over the forces under their command.
The two arrest warrants were issued at the request of the Prosecutor's Office. Pre-Trial Chamber II found that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the two suspects were responsible for missile attacks by forces under their command against Ukrainian electrical infrastructure from at least 10 October 2022 until at least 9 March 2023. It was during this time that an alleged campaign of strikes against numerous power plants and substations took place, carried out by Russian armed forces in multiple locations in Ukraine.
The contents of the warrants are made "secret" in order to protect witnesses and guarantee investigations. However, bearing in mind that behaviour such as that alleged in this case, which is in violation of international humanitarian law, is allegedly ongoing, the Chamber considers that public awareness of the warrants may help to prevent further crimes from being committed.