The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants on war crimes charges against Russian security council secretary Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, the top commander of Russia’s invasion force in Ukraine.
Pre-trial judges at The Hague-based ICC found there were reasonable grounds to believe Shoigu, Russia’s former defence minister, and Gerasimov “bear individual criminal responsibility” for a campaign of missile strikes against Ukrainian electric power plants and substations from October 2022 to March 2023, the court said on Tuesday.
This is the third time the ICC has handed out arrest warrants since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. President Vladimir Putin was the first to be indicted last year on charges relating to the alleged abduction of Ukrainian children, together with Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s children’s rights ombudsman.