'War crime' arrest warrants issued for senior Putin allies

The International Criminal Court ICC) has issued arrest warrants for two senior Russian officials, accusing them of overseeing war crimes against civilians during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

- TOM WATLING

Former Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, and military chief General Valery Gerasimov have been accused of “directing attacks at civilian objects”, “causing excessive incidental harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects”, and perpetrating the crime against humanity of “inhumane acts”.

The statement from the ICC added that there are “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”.

It added that the court believes that where strike targets may have qualified as military objectives at the time, the “expected incidental civilian harm and damage would have been clearly excessive to the anticipated military advantage”.

The warrants come as Russia has again stepped up its long-range assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in recent months, launching at least eight large-scale aerial assaults in recent weeks. Moscow launched dozens of drones and missiles during the latest attack, injuring numerous civilian workers and causing yet more blackouts across the country.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky recently said that Moscow had destroyed half of his country’s electricitygenerating capacity since it began pummelling its energy facilities in late March. Mr Zelensky has repeatedly called on Ukraine’s allies to send more air-defence systems. He has specifically requested seven sophisticated Patriot air-defence systems from the US.