The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin’s current army chief Valery Gerasimov and Sergei Shoigu for war crimes on Tuesday.
The war crimes committed by Shoigu and Gerasimov took place between 10 October 2022 until 9 March 2023 as they are responsible for missile attacks on civilian infrastructure and the energy sector.
On Wednesday the Kremlin called the international arrest warrants for the top Russian military officials as “absurd.”
The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, “We do not recognise the jurisdiction of this court.
“We are not members of the relevant statutes.
“Accordingly, we do not recognise these orders. Moreover, we consider it quite absurd, like the last two warrants that concerned the head of state and our children’s ombudsman.”
Ukraine’s presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak said the move by the ICC is important as they both “bear individual responsibility” and will now be “held responsible for evil.”
However, the Russian Security Council said the ICC’s decision is “part of the hybrid war of the West against the Russian Federation.”
Russian state media TASS reported that the council said the ICC warrant is insignificant which is purely “shaking of the air.”
The ICC said: “The two warrants of arrest were issued following applications filed by the Prosecution.
“Pre-Trial Chamber II considered that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the two suspects bear responsibility for missile strikes carried out by the Russian armed forces against the Ukrainian electric infrastructure from at least 10 October 2022 until at least 9 March 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.”
