International Criminal Court to investigate Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, first arrest warrants issued

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for commanders of Russia's Long-Range Aviation (Sergey Kobylash) and the Russian Federation's Black Sea Fleet (Viktor Sokolov) as part of the investigation into potential Russian war crimes in Ukraine committed between 10 October 2022 and 9 March 2023.

According to the press service of the ICC, the prosecution filed motions, which led to the issuance of both arrest warrants.

The Chamber of Pre-Trial Proceedings II believes that both suspects are responsible for missile strikes launched by forces under their command against Ukraine's electricity infrastructure during this time.

Pre-Trial Chamber II also determined that the alleged strike campaign qualifies as a course of conduct involving multiple acts against a civilian population carried out in accordance with State policy, as defined in Article 7 of the Charter. There is therefore sufficient reason to believe that the suspects are also responsible for a crime against humanity consisting of "other inhumane acts […] intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health," according to the relevant article of the Rome Statute.

Kobylash and Sokolov are accused of committing war crimes, which included attacking civilian objects, causing excessive accidental harm to civilians, or causing damage to civilian objects, as well as a crime against humanity, which involved committing inhumane acts.

The court stated that there are reasonable grounds to believe that they are individually criminally responsible for the aforementioned crimes, as well as that they committed them jointly and/or through other persons, gave orders to commit crimes, and/or did not exercise proper control over the forces subordinate to them.

The warrants are issued under the heading "secret" to protect witnesses and ensure the safety of the investigation. However, given that Russia continues to strike civilian targets in Ukraine, the Chamber believes that public awareness of the warrants can help prevent future crimes.

"Therefore, Pre-Trial Chamber II considers it to be in the interest of justice to authorise the Registry to publicly disclose the existence of the warrants, the name of the suspects, the crimes for which the warrants are issued, and the modes of liability," the court said.