The Kremlin said on Wednesday that it “does not recognize” the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against two senior Russian officers who are accused of war crimes linked to bombings in Ukraine.
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“We are not a party to the statute” of Rome, the founding treaty of the ICC, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov stressed to journalists. “We do not recognize” arrest warrants from this jurisdiction, he added.
The two high-ranking officers targeted by the court are Sergei Kobylach, the commander of the long-range aviation of the aerospace forces, and Viktor Sokolov, that of the Black Sea Fleet.
They are presumed responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed when missiles were fired at numerous electrical infrastructures in Ukraine between “at least October 10, 2022 and at least March 9, 2023”, according to the ICC.
These men are alleged to have led these attacks and caused excessive accidental damage to civilians or non-military property.
In the spring of 2023, the ICC, which sits in The Hague (Netherlands), also issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Children’s Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for their role in the ” deportation” of children living in Ukraine to Russia.
The Kremlin said it considered this first decision “null and void”.