Ukraine War: ICC issues arrest warrants against Russian generals

Three judges of the Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court in The Hague have issued a warrant of arrest against two Russian generals for allegedly committing war crimes against Ukrainian civilians and humanity.

In a statement by the ICC on Tuesday, Sergei Ivanovich Kobylash, a lieutenant-general in the Russian Armed Forces and Viktor Nikolayevich Sokolov, described as an “admiral in the Russian Navy,” have been accused of coordinating attacks targeted at Ukrainian “civilian objects and the war crime of causing excessive incidental harm to civilians.”

The international court claimed the duo launched missiles that damaged Ukraine’s electric infrastructure, including power plants and substations, between October 2022 and March 2023.

These allegations led judges Rosario Salvatore Aitala, Tomoko Akane (presiding judge) and Sergio Gerardo Godinez of

international court into okaying their warrants of arrest.

The ICC said it had “reasonable grounds to believe” that the duo committed the crimes jointly or through other persons or forces under their command.

Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court stated that disclosing the arrest warrants to the public would deter the duo from further committing the alleged crimes.

The ICC stressed in its statement that they also had cause to believe that the two suspects bore “responsibility for the crime against humanity of ‘other inhumane acts […] intentionally causing great suffering or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health’.”