The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued this Tuesday arrest warrants for Sergei Shoiguformer Russian Defense Minister, and the chief of the General Staff and in charge of the “military operation in Ukraine” Valery Gerásimov, for alleged crimes committed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In a press release, the Court notes that the judges found that there were “reasonable grounds to believe that the two suspects are responsible of missile attacks carried out by the Russian Armed Forces against the Ukrainian electrical infrastructure since at least October 10, 2022 until at least March 9, 2023.”
According to the Justice Department, both Russian officials were suspected of having committed war crimes and Crimes against humanity for directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects in Ukraine. In May, Shoigu was removed from the Ministry of Defense and designated as Secretary of the Russian Security Council. A change that, although it may seem like a promotion, many analysts consider a punishment for the failures in Ukraine.
[Putin no podrá viajar ni sobrevolar 123 países tras la orden de arresto de la Corte Penal Internacional]
Russia, which like Ukraine is not a member of the ICC, has repeatedly said that Ukraine’s energy infrastructure It is a legitimate military objective and denies that it targets civilians or civilian infrastructure.
However, the ICC considers that “the alleged campaign of attacks constitutes a course of conduct that involves the multiple commission of acts against a civilian population, carried out in accordance with state policy,” which leads to the belief that the suspects “caused intentionally causing great suffering or serious injury to the body or mental or physical health, thus being criminally responsible for the crime against humanity,” the agency states. Efe.
Although the content of the orders is issued as “secret” to protect witnesses and safeguard ongoing investigations, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber has authorized publicly disclosing the existence of these arrest warrants, as well as the names of the suspects and the crimes of which they are accused.
These two arrest warrants are not the first that the ICC has issued in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine since February 2022. Last March, the arrest of two Russian soldiers was ordered, Lieutenant General of the Russian Armed Forces Sergey Kobylashand the admiral of the Russian Navy, Viktor Sokolovrecovers Efe.
A year earlier, the ICC ordered the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian politician Maria Lvova-Belova, Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights in Russia, for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian minors and their transfer from occupied areas in Ukraine. to Russia, a war crime under the Rome Statute.
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