US supports ICC arrest warrants against Shoigu and Russian Army chief

June 26 () –

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller on Tuesday expressed support for the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Valeri Gerasimov for their responsibility in possible war crimes in the context of the invasion of Ukraine, unleashed in February 2022.

“We have made clear that atrocities have been committed by Russian forces in their illegal invasion of Ukraine and that there must be accountability for those atrocities. We support a range of international investigations into Russian atrocities in Ukraine, including carried out by the TPI,” Miller said during a press conference.

However, he has refused to give details about the “private conversations” between the ICC and Washington within the framework of these investigations.

The agency had indicated that Shoigu and Gerasimov would be responsible for “international crimes” committed “at least” between October 2022 and March 2023, including their role in alleged war crimes for attacks against civilian targets and crimes against humanity for “acts inhuman” in the context of war.

Thus, Shoigu and Gerasimov join the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the presidential commissioner for Children’s Rights of Russia, Maria Lvova-Belova, for whom arrest warrants have been issued by the ICC since March 2023 for alleged crimes of war for the forced deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied areas of the European country, although at the moment they have not been detained or handed over to the court.