International Criminal Court issues arrest warrants against two Russian commanders for targeting civilian infrastructure

The International Criminal Court in The Hague (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Lieutenant General Sergey Kobylash, the commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces’ long-range aviation, and Admiral Viktor Sokolov, the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

Both men are accused of the war crimes of directing attacks at civilian objects and causing excessive incidental harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects as well as the crime against humanity of “other inhumane acts” defined in article 7(1)(k) of the Rome Statute.

The ICC’s press release says that the court has concluded there are “reasonable grounds to believe that the two suspects bear responsibility for missile strikes carried out by the forces under their command against the Ukrainian electric infrastructure.”

The statement also says there are “reasonable grounds to believe that the alleged strikes were directed against civilian objects,” and that in cases where targets may have qualified as military objects, “the expected incidental civilian harm and damage would have been clearly excessive to the anticipated military advantage.”

According to the Ukrainian state energy company Ukrenergo, Russian troops targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure with more than 1,200 missiles and drones between October 2022 and April 2023. As of November 2022, nearly half of Ukraine’s energy system was reportedly disabled, leaving civilians without heat or electricity. In June 2023, the Kyiv School of Economics estimated the total cost of the damage at $8.8 billion.