The ICC issued an arrest warrant against the commanders of Russia’s long-range aviation and Black Sea Fleet. A commentary of the Center for Civil Liberties

On Tuesday, 5 March, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant against Sergei Kobylash, Commander of Russia’s Long-Range Aviation, and Viktor Sokolov, Commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. It was reported on the official ICC website.

Russia’s attacks on the energy infrastructure of Ukraine

This decision of the International Criminal Court draws a line under the discussion over the deliberate destruction of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which Russia undertook to leave millions of Ukrainians without electricity and heat in winter time. 

It is about missile attacks against civilian targets in Ukraine, and, in particular, the case files refer to at least two missile attack dates: 9 March 2003 and October 2022, when Russia launched 80-90 missiles towards Ukraine and attacked thermal power plants and other Ukrainian energy facilities. 

While ever more Ukrainians were forced to leave the country and became refugees, even international human rights organizations did not dare to call it crimes against humanity. 

The international Commission of Inquiry established by the UN Human Rights Council was the first to refer to it, and now the ICC indicates legal grounds for these arrest warrants in its news article. The Court mentions a crime against humanity among several other elements of war crimes.

Very importantly, the ICC clearly classifies these attacks as international crimes. It means that those people for whom the warrant has been issued will be wanted all over the world for the rest of their lives.

And not only those who executed criminal orders, but also those who gave them.

The responsibility of the Russian high command and leadership may be yet to come. More information should be collected to prosecute them, in particular, it should be made clear who gave these orders. It can be established only through interviewing witnesses or discovering the respective written orders in the Russian Federation. That is why only the immediate executives who supervised the launches were declared wanted.

“I hope that arrest orders will also be issued not only for the commanders of the Navy or Air Force of the Russian Federation but also for the highest officials of the military command, like Shoigu or Gerasimov since such a large-scale operation could not be conducted unless they had given their direct approval and instructions. And the command responsibility doctrine establishes liability when senior officials knew and had authority but failed to prevent these crimes. In any event, not only these two officials are guilty of destroying energy infrastructure, but also their direct superiors”, Oleksandra Matviichuk, Head of the Center for Civil Liberties, said.

ICC’s activity and (non-)ratification of the Rome Statute by Ukraine

This process is exceptionally fast for the international justice. The missile attack happened a year ago, and now there is an arrest warrant for it; it’s an unprecedented case for an international jurisdiction. Ukrainian investigators, in particular the SSU and the Prosecutor General’s Office, did a good enough job in this case, as they recorded the crime traces, the kind of missiles that attacked us and also the Russian ships from which they were launched. 

“But Ukraine still has not ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC. We recognised the ICC’s jurisdiction in full back in 2014, and it can investigate all crimes committed in Ukraine. However, since Ukraine has not ratified this Statute, it does not participate in the ICC’s activities. Its ratification would make a significant impact on the ICC’s position and speed up other investigations”, Volodymyr Yavorskyy, Programme Director of the Center for Civil Liberties, said.