The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced arrest warrants on Tuesday Former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov. for war crimes and crimes against humanity between October 2022 and March 2023 during the invasion of Ukraine.

The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber approved the arrest warrants, holding both senior Russian government officials responsible for war crimes under “Direct attacks on civilian targets and for causing excessive collateral damage to civilians and civilian objects”, as well as a crime against humanity for “inhumane acts” as defined in the Rome Statute.

ICC Prosecutor, Karim Khan asked the court to approve these arrest warrants, in which he accuses Shoigu and Gerasimov of being “criminally responsible” for committing these criminal acts, ordering them and/or failing to exercise adequate control over the forces under his command , to prevent the commission of these criminal acts. these crimes.

“There are reasonable grounds to believe that the two suspects responsible for missile attacks carried out by Russian armed forces against the Ukrainian electrical infrastructure from at least October 10, 2022 to at least March 9, 2023,” said three judges serving on the Preliminary Chamber.

During this period, the Russian armed forces carried out “a large number of attacks on numerous power plants and substations in several places” in Ukraine.

The House also sees “reasonable grounds” to believe that “The alleged attacks were directed against civilian targetsand that for those objects that would qualify as military objectives at the relevant time, the expected collateral damage to civilians and civilian objects would be clearly excessive in relation to the expected military advantage.

In addition, he condemned that “the alleged campaign of attacks constitutes a course of conduct that implies repeated acts against civilians, committed in accordance with public policy,” which leads to the belief that the suspects “willfully caused great suffering or serious injury to the body, mental or physical health, thereby incurring criminal liability for a crime against humanity.”

While the contents of the orders have been declared “secret” to protect witnesses and ensure the safety of ongoing investigations, The House allowed the existence of these arrest warrants to be publicly disclosed.as well as the names of the suspects and the crimes they are accused of.

These two arrest warrants These are not the first ones issued by the ICC. in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine from February 2022. In March last year, an order was issued for the arrest of two Russian military personnel, Lieutenant General of the Russian Armed Forces Sergei Kobylash and Admiral of the Russian Navy Viktor Sokolov.

A year earlier, the ICC ordered arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian politician Maria Lvova-Belova, The Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian minors and their transfer from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia, which is a war crime under the Rome Statute.

(EFE)