The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants on Tuesday for former Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, the current military chief of staff, on accusations of war crimes in Ukraine.
Both are allegedly responsible for "directing attacks" at civilian targets in Ukraine.
The ICC judges said there were sufficient grounds to believe that Shoigu and Gerasimov bore individual criminal responsibility, either by ordering the attacks for others to carry out or failing to exercise proper control over forces under their command.
Specifically, the court alleged that Shoigu and Gerasimov were responsible for missile strikes against Ukrainian electric infrastructure from at least October 10, 2022 until at least March 9, 2023.
"During this time-frame, a large number of strikes against numerous electric power plants and sub-stations were carried out by the Russian armed forces in multiple locations in Ukraine," the court statement said.
