Today, Tuesday, the International Criminal Court issued its first two arrest warrants against two senior Russian military commanders whom it accuses of war crimes for their involvement in the bombings of civilian facilities in Ukraine. “There are reasonable indications to believe that the two suspects are responsible for the missile attacks launched by the army under their command against electrical infrastructure in Ukraine carried out between October 10, 2022 and at least March 9, 2023,” he announced. The Hague-based institution in a statement announcing the arrest warrants issued against two commanders of the Russian air forces, Sergei Ivanovich Kobylash and Viktor Nikolayevich Sokolov.
While Moscow assures that its forces are limited to acting against military objectives, The Hague suspects that these “multiple attacks” denote a “pattern of conduct” that is part of a “state policy.” Specifically, the judges of Chamber II of the Court believe that the attacks were directed against civilian objects and that, regarding facilities that could have been classified as civilian objectives at the time in question, “the incidental civil damage and expected destruction could have been declared excessive “with respect to any military advance.” This is the second arrest and surrender order issued by The Hague in relation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, after in March 2023 they ordered the arrest of President Vladimir Putin and one of his collaborators, Maria Lvova-Belova, presidential commissioner for Children’s Rights in Russia, whom he accuses of war crimes for their “personal responsibility” in the kidnapping of Ukrainian children.
