ICC issues arrest warrants for two senior Russian officials

The ICC does not have its own police force to enforce arrest warrants

The International Criminal Court said on Tuesday it had issued arrest warrants for two senior Russian officials over the war in Ukraine, which included attacks on Ukraine’s power infrastructure.

Previously, the court issued an international arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March last year, accusing him of war crimes by deporting Ukrainian children since launching the war in February 2022.

It named two new arrest targets as Army Lieutenant General Sergei Ivanovich Kobylash and Navy Admiral Viktor Nikolayevich Sokolov (Viktor Nikolayevich Sokolov), and stated that the alleged crimes were committed between October 2022 and March 2023.

The court said both men were “allegedly responsible for war crimes against civilian targets” and were charged with “crimes against humanity and inhumane acts”.

The court said it had reason to believe the two suspects were responsible for missile attacks targeting Ukraine’s power infrastructure from at least October 10, 2022, to at least March 9, 2023.

During this period, Russian armed forces allegedly carried out attacks on power plants and substations at various locations in Ukraine, the court said.

“There are reasonable grounds to believe that they are personally criminally responsible for the above-mentioned crimes,” the Hague court said in a statement.

The two men either directly carried out the attack, ordered the attack or failed to “exercise appropriate control of the forces under their command,” the statement said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the court’s action, saying it sent a message to Russian commanders that “justice will be served” in attacks against civilians and critical infrastructure.

“Every perpetrator of such crimes must know they will be held accountable,” he said.

‘Another milestone’

The ICC, established in 2002 to investigate war crimes around the world, opened a field office in Kiev in September as part of an effort to hold Russian forces accountable for potential war crimes.

This follows the establishment in The Hague in March 2023 of an international office to investigate Russia’s war crimes of aggression, which Kyiv called a “historic” first step towards a Moscow leadership tribunal.

Along with Putin, the ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing her of illegally deporting children during the war in Ukraine.

Russian officials have reacted strongly to the court’s arrest warrant for Putin, with Moscow issuing retaliatory arrest warrants for Britain’s ICC prosecutor Karim Khan and other court officials.

The court’s move appeared to limit Putin’s diplomatic activities, with the Russian president absent from last year’s BRICS summit in South Africa.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine are official members of the ICC, but Kyiv has been cooperating with the court to provide what it considers evidence of Russian crimes.

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andrei Kostin said on Tuesday: “Ukrainian prosecutors, investigators and different Ukrainian agencies have spent months working hard and they have provided thousands of pieces of evidence and information to the ICC Prosecutor’s Office. .”

“Today we have reached another milestone in ensuring justice for all victims and survivors of this war. I am deeply grateful to ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan and his team,” Costin said in Brussels for the European said during the judicial conference. Ministers.

The ICC does not have its own police force to enforce arrest warrants and relies on its 123 member states to enforce arrest warrants if a target travels to its territory.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)