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THE HAGUE.- The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued on Monday arrest warrants against former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov for attacking civilian targets in Ukraine, a mainly symbolic measure, as was known this Tuesday.
Both are suspected of responsibility in war crimes, consisting of directing attacks against civilian objects and causing excessive damage to the civilian population, as well as the commission of “inhuman acts” in Ukraine, the ICC indicated in a statement.
In a statement, the Court said the orders had been issued because the judges believe there are reasonable grounds to believe that the two men are responsible for “missile attacks carried out by the Russian armed forces against Ukrainian electrical infrastructure” between October 10, 2022 and at least until March 9, 2023, during the European winter.
“During this period, the Russian armed forces carried out a large number of attacks against numerous power plants and substations in various locations in Ukraine”the court added. “The anticipated civilian damage would have been clearly excessive with respect to the anticipated military advantage,” the court said in a statement Tuesday.
The Chamber also sees “reasonable grounds” to believe that “the alleged attacks were directed against civilian objects, and that for those facilities that could have qualified as military objectives at the relevant time, the expected collateral damage to civilians and civilian objects would have been clearly excessive compared to the anticipated military advantage ”.
Furthermore, he denounced that “the alleged campaign of attacks constitutes a course of conduct that involves the multiple commission of acts against a civilian population, carried out in accordance with state policy,” which leads one to believe that the suspects “intentionally caused great suffering or serious injury to the body or mental or physical healththus being criminally responsible for the crime against humanity.”
Gerasimov and Shoigu are long-time loyalists of President Vladimir Putin and are considered the architects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It was unlikely that either of the two defendants would be arrested imminently. Russia is not a member of the International Criminal Court, does not recognize its jurisdiction and refuses to hand over suspects.
The ICC also issued last year an arrest warrant against the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, whom he accused of having personal responsibility for the kidnapping of Ukrainian children, and against the Russian ombudsman for children’s rights, saying that she had individual criminal responsibility for the kidnapping and deportation of Ukrainian children.
Putin dismissed Shoigu as defense minister in a government overhaul in May as he begins his fifth term as president. He appointed Shoigu secretary of the Russian Security Council and in his place, at the head of Defense, he appointed an economist, Andrei Belousov.
The cabinet changes represented a rare shake-up for Putin, who tends to avoid hasty changes, and analysts said they could mark a turning point in Russia’s more than two-year war in Ukraineas the Russian president removed from military command a man whom both pro-war Russian commentators and Western analysts considered partly responsible for Moscow’s numerous failures at the beginning of the invasion. And by appointing an economist, he tacitly acknowledged the importance of industrial power for any military victory.
Shoigu’s possible dismissal was the subject of speculation from the early days of the war, when Russian forces appeared unprepared for the determination of the Ukrainian resistance.
Last summer, the mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin organized a mutiny to try to overthrow Shoigu, Minister of Defense for more than a decade. But Putin, who analysts say values loyalty, stuck with Shoigu.
Agencies AP, AFP and The New York Times
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