ICC issues arrest warrants for war crimes against senior Russian officials

This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Sergei Shoigu was the head of the Russian Defense Ministry until a year ago, so he was the main person in charge of the Russian military. Gerasimov is a major general in the Russian military and the chief of staff of the Russian army, so these are two very important people involved in the war effort. And suddenly they can’t travel around the world.

This sends the message that the West has numerous tools to deal with Putin and Russia in terms of the war in Ukraine and possible war crimes. And I think that this war will most likely end not on the battlefield but in the courtroom, because these ICC indictments, attempts to update the crimes of aggression, all of this is happening around the world, and this will trap Putin and the Russians for years to come, because they cannot go to foreign cities.

Russia will deny these charges because they are not subject to the jurisdiction of the ICC. And they will simply say that this is just another attempt by the West to interfere in Russia’s external and internal affairs. Ukraine will welcome this and the fact that even more Western institutions are rallying around Ukraine and welcoming Ukraine’s attempt to defend its territory.

And so I think this will be another sign that Ukraine is trying to gain a foothold in Western institutions, against Russia. This will have consequences in the long term.