The Kremlin described the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Russia's former defence minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, the current military chief of staff, as "quite absurd."
"We do not recognize the court's jurisdiction and are not a member of the relevant statute. Accordingly, we also do not recognize the arrest warrants," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
The orders are as silly as the previous arrest warrants against President Vladimir Putin and Russia's commissioner for children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, he added.
The court had issued the arrest warrants for Shoigu and Gerasimov on Tuesday on accusations of war crimes in Ukraine.
According to the ICC, there is plausible evidence that Shoigu and Gerasimov were responsible for missile attacks on the Ukrainian energy grid from October 10, 2022 to at least March 9, 2023.
Many Ukrainians experienced a bitterly cold winter with many power cuts at the time.
