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On June 25, 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for two Russian officials on charges of committing crimes in Ukraine.
The arrest warrants were issued for former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff General Valery Gerasimov, on charges of committing international crimes, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
According to the ICC statement, the arrest warrants for the Russian officials are due to attacks on civilian targets and collateral damage to civilians, as well as “inhumane” practices in Ukraine, during the period from October 10, 2022, to at least March 9, 2023.
The ICC statement added: “During the alleged period, the Russian armed forces carried out a significant number of strikes against numerous electrical power stations and substations in multiple locations in Ukraine”.
There is no immediate likelihood of arresting either of the suspects. Russia is not a member of the ICC, does not recognize its jurisdiction, and refuses to hand over the suspects.
Russia has stated that Ukraine’s energy infrastructure is a legitimate military target and denies targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure.
Last year, the ICC issued a similar arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, on charges of kidnapping around 20,000 children from areas in eastern and southern Ukraine.
The Russian president appointed a new Defense Minister in place of Shoigu in a cabinet reshuffle on May 13, when he began his fifth term as president. The Kremlin announced that Shoigu had been appointed Secretary of the Russian Security Council.
The Kremlin said that Putin signed a decree appointing Shoigu as Secretary of the Russian Security Council. The appointment was announced shortly after Putin proposed Andrey Belousov to become the country’s Defense Minister in place of Shoigu.
The announcement of Shoigu’s new role came as 13 people were killed and 20 others injured in the Russian border city of Belgorod, where a 10-story residential building partially collapsed after what Russian officials said was Ukrainian shelling. Ukraine did not comment on the incident.
Former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu appointed Chief of the General Staff General Valery Gerasimov on January 12, 2023, as the commander of what the Kremlin calls the “special military operation” in Ukraine, succeeding General Sergey Surovikin, who was appointed to the position on October 8, 2022.
It is worth noting that former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and General Valery Gerasimov played a crucial role in Russia’s intervention in Syria since late September 2015, committing crimes against humanity. Shoigu previously announced that his country’s army tested more than 320 different types of weapons in Syria, including helicopters, while Gerasimov considered Moscow’s military support for Damascus in 2015 to have saved the Syrian regime from collapse under the strikes of what he called “terrorists”.
Same Justice organization welcomed the issuance of this warrant, considering that prosecuting war criminals in international courts is an effective means to achieve international peace and stability, and called for the prosecution of all officials accused of committing crimes against humanity to achieve justice for the victims and their families.
