International Criminal Court issues warrant for two Russian military leaders

The court’s pretrial chamber found that the “two suspects bear responsibility for missile strikes carried out by the forces under their command against the Ukrainian electric infrastructure from at least 10 October 2022 until at least 9 March 2023,” the ICC said in the statement.

The two military leaders are alleged to have directed attacks at civilian objects and caused excessive incidental harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects, both war crimes under the Rome Statue, the international treaty that founded the ICC.

The court’s pretrial chamber found that even if the civilian targets like electric infrastructure could have qualified as military objectives, “the expected incidental civilian harm and damage would have been clearly excessive to the anticipated military advantage.”

The court also accused Kobylash and Sokolov of inhumane acts, a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute, which is a graver category of crimes that has not been used yet in the ICC’s Ukraine investigation. In its statement, the court said that this was because the multiple acts against a civilian population were “pursuant to a state policy.”

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Tuesday’s announcement marks just the second time the court has issued arrest warrants in its investigation into alleged war crimes in Ukraine. Last year, the court issued warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, for the war crimes of “unlawful deportation” and “unlawful transfer” of children from occupied areas.

The earlier warrants had a mostly symbolic impact. Russia, like the United States, does not accept the ICC’s jurisdiction, and the court does not try people in absentia. However it has limited the Russian president’s travel to countries that accept the court’s jurisdiction. Last year, Putin skipped an international summit in South Africa shortly after the warrants were made public.

Kobylash remains in his position in Russia’s aerospace force, but multiple Russian military bloggers reported last month that Sokolov had been dismissed as commander of the Black Sea fleet after a series of attacks by Ukrainian forces on the Russian navy. The Russian Ministry of Defense has not commented on the reports.

The ICC’s top prosecutor, British lawyer Karim Khan, announced a probe into potential war crimes in Ukraine in March 2022. Though Ukraine is also not a party to the court, it has accepted its jurisdiction.

In a post to social media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he welcomed the new arrest warrants.

“Every Russian commander who orders strikes against Ukrainian civilians and critical infrastructure must know that justice will be served,” Zelensky wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Every perpetrator of such crimes must know that they will be held accountable.”