International Court of Justice calls for arrest of Russian officials for attacks on Ukrainian power plants

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The International Criminal Court on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for Russia’s former defense minister and his chief of general staff over attacks on Ukraine’s nuclear power plants. It is the third time the International Criminal Court has charged senior Russian politicians with war crimes.

There is no immediate likelihood that either of the two former defence ministers Sergei Shoigu or Chief of General Staff. Valery Gerasimov They are arrested and charged with war crimes and inhumane acts. Russia is not a member of the court, does not recognize its jurisdiction and refuses to extradite suspects.

Nevertheless, this step is another moral condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The arrest warrant is the world court’s latest attempt to intervene in a major conflict. Earlier this year, the court’s chief prosecutor sought arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defense minister and three leaders of the militant Hamas group for carrying out deadly attacks in southern Israel and sparking a war in Gaza.

Last year, the court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abduction of children from Ukraine. This made it difficult for him to travel for a time, but the practical consequences were limited.

The Russian Security Council rejected the arrest warrants on Tuesday as “null and void.”

“This is empty talk, considering that Russia does not fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC and the decision was made as part of the West’s hybrid warfare against our country,” Russian news agencies said in a statement.

A statement from the court said the arrest warrants were issued on Monday because judges believed there were sufficient grounds to believe Shoigu and Gerasimov were responsible for “missile attacks by Russian forces on Ukraine’s power infrastructure” from October 10, 2022 to at least March 9, 2023.

Judges who granted the prosecutor’s arrest warrant request said the suspects were accused of inhumane acts because there was evidence that they had “intentionally caused great suffering or serious physical or mental or physical harm” to civilians in Ukraine.

Under the leadership of Shoigu and Gerasimov, the Russian military has launched waves of missile and drone strikes that have killed thousands of people and damaged the country’s energy system and other vital infrastructure.

Moscow insists it only attacked military facilities, despite daily casualties in civilian areas. The court claims that the missile attacks covered by the arrest warrant targeted civilian facilities.

It further stated that for all installations that could have been considered military targets, “the expected incidental harm to the civilian population would have clearly exceeded the expected military advantage.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the arrest warrants in a post on social media platform X, saying both men were charged with “heinous crimes against civilians in Ukraine during Russia’s reckless bombing of critical civilian infrastructure. These barbaric missile and drone attacks continue to kill people and cause damage across Ukraine.”

He added: “Every criminal involved in planning and carrying out these attacks needs to know that justice will be done. And we hope to see them behind bars.”

The court said the details of the arrest warrants were kept secret to protect witnesses.

ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement that the decision to issue arrest warrants “reflects my office’s ongoing commitment to giving meaningful effect to the protections the law provides to civilians and protected objects.”

Khan said his prosecutor’s office “remains focused on pursuing multiple, interconnected lines of investigation in Ukraine.”

When Putin began his fifth term as president in May, he dismissed Shoigu as defense minister in a cabinet reshuffle.

Shoigu, 69, is widely seen as a key figure in Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine. Russia had expected the operation to quickly overwhelm the much smaller and poorly equipped Ukrainian army.

Instead, the conflict prompted Ukraine to mount an intense defense and dealt humiliating blows to the Russian army, including retreating from an attempt to take the capital Kyiv and a counteroffensive that drove Moscow’s forces out of the northeastern Kharkiv region and the Kherson area in the south in the fall of 2022.

Shoigu, who had personal ties to Putin, got a soft start with the prestigious post of secretary of the Russian Security Council. At the same time, Shoigu’s entourage was hit by purges. A long-time aide and deputy, Timur Ivanov, and several other senior military officers were arrested on corruption charges, and other senior Defense Ministry officials lost their posts.

Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff since 2012, has retained his post so far. The 68-year-old military officer directly led Russian military operations in Ukraine.

In addition to the arrest warrant against Putin, the court issued arrest warrants in March for two high-ranking Russian military officers on charges of carrying out attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, which the judges said were carried out “as part of state policy.”

Last year, Russia announced it would bring charges against Putin in the absence of a judge and prosecutor of the International Criminal Court who had issued an arrest warrant for him.

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