The International Criminal Court (CC) has issued arrest warrants for two Russian officials – including the country’s former defence minister Sergei Shoigu.

The other arrest warrant is for Russia’s chief of general staff Valery Gerasimov.
Shoigu, seen as a long-standing ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was removed as defence minister last month.

Last year, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin over his role in the abduction of Ukrainian children.

A panel of ICC judges said that the decision was linked to alleged international crimes linked to the situation in Ukraine that were committed from “at least 10 October 2022 until at least 9 March 2023”.

Electricity infrastructure

The judges found that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the two bore responsibility for missile strikes carried out by the Russian armed forces against Ukrainian electricity infrastructure during the period.

“During this timeframe, a large number of strikes against numerous electric power plants and sub-stations were carried out by the Russian armed forces in multiple locations in Ukraine,” the court said.

The judges decided that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the alleged strikes were directed against civilian objects,” and for those installations that may have qualified as military objectives at the relevant time, the expected incidental civilian harm and damage would have been clearly excessive to the anticipated military advantage”.

Such actions are in violation of parts of articles 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the court.