The International Criminal Court said Tuesday it had issued arrest warrants for Russia’s chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, and former defence minister Sergei Shoigu.
The warrants, issued Monday but announced on Tuesday, were in response to the alleged war crimes of directing attacks at civilian structures and causing excessive incidental harm to civilians, as well as the crime against humanity of «inhumane acts» in Ukraine, the ICC said in a statement.
ICC judges said there were «reasonable grounds to believe that the two suspects bear responsibility for missile strikes carried out by the Russian armed forces against the Ukrainian electric infrastructure from at least 10 October 2022 until at least 9 March 2023.»
The court said these strikes were «directed against civilian objects» and even when targets could be considered military, civilian damage «would have been clearly excessive to the anticipated military advantage.»
Ukraine hailed the decision as «important,» with President Volomymyr Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak saying that «everyone will be held accountable for evil.»