Russian officials accused of war crimes in Ukraine, International Court issues arrest warrant

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for two top Russian military officers, accusing them of war crimes for targeting civilians and destroying critical energy infrastructure in Ukraine. A court statement accused the two officers—Lieutenant General Sergei Ivanovich Kobylash and Admiral Viktor Nikolayevich Sokolov—of being personally responsible for multiple missile strikes carried out by their forces on electrical power plants and substations in several locations between October 2022 and March 2023. Has been accused of.

The Court stated that the winter attacks were defined as war crimes because they were largely directed against civilian targets, causing excessive incidental harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects. Kobylash is a senior Russian Air Force officer who commanded the country’s long-range aviation forces during the time Sokolov was commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

Full details of the new warrant will not be disclosed to protect witnesses and further investigation, the court statement said. The International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, Netherlands, is the only permanent international court appointed to address genocide, wars of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Even though the Russians have repeatedly bombed civilian structures and killed countless civilians, lawyers familiar with the ICC investigation suggested that prosecutors isolated this specific time period because of the weight of the evidence and the command structure known at the time. The clarity of the allegations may make them easier to prove than many others.