The Kremlin said on Wednesday that it “does not recognize” arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC) against two senior Russian officers accused of war crimes in connection with bombings in Ukraine.
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“We are not a party to the Rome Statute,” the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized 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 Aerospace Forces' long-range aircraft, and Viktor Sokolov, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet.
They are considered 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,” the ICC said.
These men are said to have led these attacks and caused excessive accidental damage to civilians or non-military property.
In the spring of 2023, the ICC, based in The Hague, Netherlands, also issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Children's Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for their roles in the “deportation” of children living in Ukraine.
The Kremlin said it viewed this initial decision as “null and void.”