ICC issues arrest warrants against Russia’s Shoigu and Gerasimov over Ukraine war

The move came after the court – which Russia has not joined – last year brought charges against President Vladimir Putin and his children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, over the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.

The Court has no enforcement powers and relies on the 124 states that have signed the Court’s Rome Statute to arrest individuals accused of war crimes or crimes against humanity when they visit their territory.

Shoigu served as defense minister until Putin ousted him last month and appointed Andrei Belousov in his place. Shoigu, a Putin loyalist, was instead named chairman of Russia’s Security Council.

According to the indictment, both were responsible for war crimes, namely attacks on civilian objects and “causing excessive harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects … as well as inhumane acts that amounted to crimes against humanity.”

The indictment states that Russia has carried out numerous actions against Ukrainian civilians. It goes on to say: “There are reasonable grounds to believe that the suspects intentionally caused great suffering or serious physical harm, or serious damage to mental or physical health, and therefore bear criminal responsibility for crimes against humanity or other inhumane acts.”

The ICC indictment lists alleged crimes from October 10, 2022, to at least March 9, 2023, when Russia carried out a large number of attacks on Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure.

The indictment states that there are sufficient grounds to believe that the two officials bear “individual responsibility” for the crimes they are accused of, either because they ordered them or because they did not have the Russian armed forces under control.