The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for alleged war crimes in Ukraine against two senior Russian officers on Tuesday.
After the arrest warrant issued exactly one year ago against Putin for his role in the deportation of children living in Ukraine (Arrest warrant against Putin for war crimes), the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Preliminary Chamber II of the International Criminal Court, composed of Judge Rosario Salvatore Aitala, Judge Tomoko Akane and Judge Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez issued arrest warrants against Sergei Ivanovič Kobylash and Viktor Nikolaevič Sokolov.
The two servicemen were held responsible for the war crime of directing attacks against civilian objectives and for causing excessive accidental harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects as well as the crime against humanity of inhuman acts under Article 7, paragraph 1, letter k), of the Rome Statute.
According to the Court, there are reasonable reasons to believe that the two senior officers have individual criminal responsibility not only for having carried out the conduct mentioned above jointly or through others but also for not having exercised adequate control over the forces under their command.
La II Preliminary chamber holds the two soldiers responsible for the missile attacks carried out by forces under their command against numerous electricity infrastructures in Ukraine between "at least 10 October 2022 and at least 9 March 2023", the ICC explained.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said he had "repeatedly emphasized that those responsible for actions that impact innocent civilians or protected objects should know that such conduct is governed by a set of rules reflected in international humanitarian law."
Photo: CPI
