ICC Seeks Arrest of Russian Commanders for Attacks on Ukraine

The Washington Post reported that the International Criminal Court (ICC) sitting in The Hague, Netherlands issued arrest warrants Tuesday for two high-ranking Russian military officers on charges linked to attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.

The documents called for the arrest of Russian Lt. Gen. Sergei Ivanovich Kobylash and Russian navy Admiral Viktor Kinolayevich Sokolov. Kobylash was commander of the Long-Range Aviation of the Aerospace Force and Sokolov commanded the Black Sea Fleet at the times of the alleged crimes.

Admiral Viktor Nikolayevich Sokolov. Photo: Facebook

It is only the second time the ICC has publicly announced arrest warrants linked to Russia's war in Ukraine. On March 17, 2023, following an investigation of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, the court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, alleging responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation and transfer of children during the war in Ukraine.

The two senior Russian commanders are wanted for the war crime of directing attacks at civilian objects, thereby causing excessive incidental harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects, and the crime against humanity of inhumane acts.

The court said that judges who reviewed the evidence presented by prosecutors said that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that the two men are responsible for ordering “missile strikes carried out by the forces under their command against the Ukrainian electric infrastructure” from Oct. 10, 2022 until at least March 9, 2023.

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Russian Lt. Gen. Sergei Ivanovich Kobylash. Photo: X

“During this time frame, there was an alleged campaign of strikes against numerous electric power plants and sub-stations, which were carried out by the Russian armed forces in multiple locations in Ukraine,” the court said.

The court added that it “considered that the alleged campaign of strikes qualifies as a course of conduct involving the multiple commission of acts against a civilian population” and that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that the suspects also bear responsibility for the crime against humanity or ‘other inhumane acts […] intentionally causing great suffering or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health’”

Russia does not recognize the jurisdiction of the court, despite having signed the Rome statute, which governs the ICC, in 2000. Moscow formally declined to ratify its membership in 2016, the day after the court classified the Russian annexation of Crimea as an occupation.