The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Tuesday Valery Gerasimovthe current military chief of staff, on charges of war crimes in Ukraine.
Both are said to be responsible for ‘directing attacks’ on civilian targets in Ukraine.
The ICC judges said there were sufficient grounds to believe that Shoigu and Gerasimov bore individual criminal responsibility, either by ordering the attacks by others or by failing to exercise proper control over the forces under their command.
Specifically, the court alleged that Shoigu and Gerasimov were responsible for rocket attacks on Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure from at least October 10, 2022 to at least March 9, 2023.
“During this period, a large number of attacks were carried out on numerous power plants and substations by the Russian armed forces in multiple locations in Ukraine,” the court statement said.