This content was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
The International Criminal Court ( ICC ) has  , issued , arrest warrants for former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the Russian military’s chief of staff, General Valery Gerasimov, for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine after the start of Russia’s unprovoked invasion of its neighbor in 2022.
The ICC , said in a statement released on June 25 that Shoigu and Gerasimov “are each alleged to be responsible for the war murder of directing attacks at human objects… and the combat murder of causing excessive extraneous harm to civilians or harm to human objects.”
According to the preliminary room of the ICC, which included presiding judges Rosario Salvatore Aitala, Sergio Gerardo Ugalde Godinez, and Haykel Ben Mahfoudh, Shoigu and Gerasimov were held accountable for Russian weapon attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure between October 2022 and at least March 2023.
According to the speech,” the anticipated incidental civilian hurt and harm would have been clearly overwhelming to the expected military advantage” for those who had ordered the strikes.
Vladimir Putin, the chairman of Russia, fired Shoigu in May. He then heads Putin’s Security Council.
Kyiv soon hailed the ICC’s statement.
In order to deprive Russia of its feeling of discrimination,” we look forward to more imprisonment permits.” the emotion that has fueled acts in Russia for a long time. Accountability is the only means to put a stop to them”, Zelenskiy , said , on X, previously Online.
” Shoigu and Gerasimov bear personal responsibility. This is an important choice. Everyone will be held responsible for evil”, Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak,  , wrote , before on X.
The ICC in March next year issued arrest warrants for Putin and his children’s director, Maria Lvova- Belova, for being accountable for the repatriation of Russian children to Russia — a war crime under international policy.
The Hague-based ICC relies on the 124 member judiciaries to carry out its incarceration permits, but does not have the means to do so.
Individually, in a situation brought by Kyiv, the European Court of Human Rights , ruled , on June 25 that Russia had committed many human rights violations in Crimea since it occupied the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014.
Russia was innocent of breaches of the right to existence, failing to prevent inhuman or degrading care, freedom of religion, and freedom of expression among other violations, the judge said in its decision.
