War in Ukraine: ICC issues two arrest warrants against Russian officers

Lieutenant Sergei Kobylach and Admiral Viktor Sokolov, commander of the Black Sea Fleet, are suspected of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Ukraine between October 2022 and March 2023. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed this new step taken by the ICC so that justice is done.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

AP - Mike Corder

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The content of these arrest warrants is always confidential, explains RFI correspondent in The Hague, 

Stéphanie Maupas

.

The judges simply made their existence public, with one goal: to help prevent similar crimes.

This is what the International Criminal Court explains in a press release.

Also read: Is international justice up to par?

We nevertheless know that the prosecutor accuses the two officers of war crimes for the attack on civilian infrastructure, attacks directed in particular against power plants and electrical stations affected under the orders of the two officers;

and according to the judges, these attacks resulted in excessive civilian damage.

It is a campaign of strikes which affected all of Ukraine, between “

at least October 10, 2022 and at least March 9, 2023

”, affirms the International Criminal Court, and which could be part of a policy of the State involving attacks targeting the civilian population.

And as such, the two officers are therefore suspected of a crime against humanity for acts causing “

serious attacks on physical or mental integrity

”.

These arrest warrants are in addition to those issued a year ago against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova.

Also read: Maria Lvova Belova, the angelic face of dark trafficking

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