THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The International Criminal Court said Tuesday it had issued arrest warrants for Russia’s former defense minister and military chief of staff on suspicion of an attack. Ukrainian power plantThis is the third time that the International Court of Justice has indicted senior Russian officials on war crimes charges.
There is no immediate risk that former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu or Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov will be held for war crimes or crimes against humanity for inhumane acts. Russia is not a member state of the court, does not recognize its jurisdiction and refuses to extradite the suspects.
Nevertheless, this move Russia’s invasion of Ukraine February 2022.
The warrant is the latest attempt by the International Court of Justice to intervene in the large-scale conflict. Earlier this year, the court’s chief prosecutor An arrest warrant was requested He condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence minister and three leaders of the militant group Hamas over deadly militant attacks in southern Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.
Last year, the court issued a warrant against the Russian president. Vladimir PutinHe accused him of being personally responsible for the abduction of children from Ukraine. At times his travels became complicated. However, the practical impact is limited.
Russia’s Security Council on Tuesday dismissed the arrest warrant as “invalid.”
“This is mere empty talk, given that the ICC’s jurisdiction does not include Russia and the decision was taken as part of a hybrid war by Western countries against our country,” it said in a statement carried by a Russian news agency.
The warrants were issued on Monday after the judge found there were sufficient grounds to believe that Shoigu and Gerasimov were involved in “missile attacks carried out by Russian forces against Russia,” the court said in a statement. Ukraine’s power infrastructure “From October 10, 2022 until at least March 9, 2023.”
Approving the prosecutor’s request for the warrant, the judge said the suspects were being charged with inhumane acts because there was evidence they “intentionally caused great suffering and serious injury to the body, mental or physical health of Ukrainian civilians.”
Under the command of Shoigu and Gerasimov, Russian forces launched a series of missile and drone attacks that killed thousands and damaged the country’s energy system and other critical infrastructure.
Moscow maintains that the targets were only military installations, despite daily casualties in civilian areas. The court argued that the missile attacks listed in the warrants were aimed at civilian facilities.
It added that in the case of facilities that could be considered military objectives, “the anticipated collateral civilian harm or damage would clearly outweigh the anticipated military advantage.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the arrest warrants in a post on social platform X, saying the suspects were accused of “committing heinous crimes against Ukrainian civilians during Russia’s reckless bombing of Ukraine’s vital civilian infrastructure. These barbaric missile and drone attacks continue to kill and harm people across Ukraine.”
He added: “All the criminals involved in planning and carrying out these attacks should know that justice will be served, and we sincerely hope that they see prison time.”
Details of the warrant were kept secret to protect witnesses, the court said.
ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said in a statement that the decision to issue the warrant “reflects my office’s ongoing commitment to giving meaningful effect to the law’s protections for civilians and protected objects.”
Khan said prosecutors “remain focused on pursuing multiple, interrelated investigations in Ukraine.”
Putin Remove Shoigu He was appointed defense minister in a cabinet reshuffle in May, when he began his fifth term as president.
Shoigu, 69, is widely seen as a key figure in Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine, an operation Russia expected to quickly overwhelm the much smaller and poorly equipped Ukrainian military.
Instead, the conflict has galvanized Ukraine to mount a fierce defense and dealt humiliating blows to Russian forces, including a retreat from an attempt to seize the capital, Kiev, and a counteroffensive in the fall of 2022 that drove Moscow’s forces out of the Kharkiv region in the northeast and around Kherson in the south.
Shoigu, who had personal ties to Putin, It was a soft landing. He will assume the high-ranking post of Secretary General of Russia’s Security Council. Faced a purgeHis longtime colleague and aide, Timur Ivanov, and several other senior military officials were arrested on corruption charges, and other senior Defense Ministry officials lost their jobs.
Gerasimov has so far remained in his position, having served as chief of the general staff since 2012. The 68-year-old is a career military man who has had direct command of Russian military operations in Ukraine.
In addition to the arrest warrant for Putin, a court issued arrest warrants for two senior Russian officials in March. Russian military officer The judges said the attack on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure took place “in accordance with state policy” but were charged with related charges.
Last year, Russia Announcing the indictment The trial in default of the judges and prosecutors of the International Criminal Court who issued an arrest warrant for President Putin.
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