.The ICC is located in The Hague, the Netherlands. The situation in Ukraine: the ICC issued arrest warrants for Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov International Law
June 24, 2024 The Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov. They are accused of allegedly committing international crimes in the context of the situation in Ukraine from at least October 10, 2022 to March 9, 2023.
Sergei Shoigu at the time of the alleged act was the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, and Valery Gerasimov – the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of this country and the First Deputy Minister of Defense.
Each of them is allegedly responsible for the war crimes of attacking civilian targets, or causing excessive harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects.
Shoigu and Gerasimov are also accused of crimes against humanity. As stated in the official ICC communication, the Court has reasonable grounds to believe that they are individually criminally responsible for the above-mentioned crimes.
Two arrest warrants were issued based on the petitions filed by the prosecutor’s office. The Second Pre-Trial Chamber found that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that the two suspects were responsible for missile attacks carried out by Russian military forces against Ukrainian electric power facilities between at least October 10, 2022, and at least March 9, 2023.” During this time, Russian armed forces carried out a large number of attacks on numerous power plants and substations in several localities in Ukraine.
The contents of the warrants are classified as “secret” for the purpose of protecting witnesses and consequences. However, given that behavior similar to that alleged in the arrest warrants appears to be continuing, the Chamber considered that public awareness of the warrants could help prevent further crimes.
The Court notes that one of the main purposes of international humanitarian law is the protection of civilians in armed conflicts.
The ICC is a criminal court, which brings cases against individuals for war crimes or crimes against humanity. The ICC is legally independent from the UN, but has received the support of the General Assembly.