Russian commanders are responsible for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine. The court notes that the actions of Kobylash and Sokolov are systemic and part of the aggressor’s state policy.
On March 5, 2024, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Russian Commander of the Long-Range Aviation of the Aerospace Force Sergei Kobylash and Russian Commander of the Black Sea Fleet Viktor Sokolov. Commenting on the warrants, pro-Kremlin media stated that the ICC’s decision “will not have any consequences for Russia” and that the warrants were “just a puff piece designed to stir up an information wave.” The Russian media also claimed that Russia’s criminal actions in Ukraine allegedly cannot be considered war crimes.
The Commander of the Long-Range Aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Sergei Kobylash, and the Commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, Viktor Sokolov, are accused of committing crimes by the Russian army in Ukraine. According to the ICC, each of them is allegedly responsible for war crimes, which consist of strikes on civilian objects in Ukraine, as well as crimes against humanity, which consist of inhumane actions of the occupiers against civilians in Ukraine.
“The two suspects bear responsibility for missile strikes carried out by the forces under their command against the Ukrainian electric infrastructure from at least 10 October 2022 until at least 9 March 2023 … There are reasonable grounds to believe that the alleged strikes were directed against civilian objects, and for those installations that may have qualified as military objectives at the relevant time, the expected incidental civilian harm and damage would have been clearly excessive to the anticipated military advantage… There are reasonable grounds to believe that the suspects also bear responsibility for the crime against humanity of ‘other inhumane acts […] intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health’,” the ICC said.
Propagandists are disingenuous when they say that the arrest warrants for the two Russian commanders allegedly have no impact on Russia, Borys Babin, an expert at the Association of Reintegration of Crimea, Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in 2017-2018, explains in a commentary to StopFake.
According to him, the ICC prosecutor’s office chose these tracks for criminal cases not by chance. These are the most large-scale war crimes or crimes against humanity that the prosecutor will be able to prove in court, as these crimes are widely documented and have factual evidence.
Borys Babin points out that since it concerns the command of the Russian Long-Range Aviation and the Black Sea Fleet, once the warrants are issued, both military units can be considered as instruments of international crimes.
“When proceedings are underway against a commander and it is established that he gave orders – he was not just an executor, but an organizer – it means that the entire Black Sea Fleet under his command was an instrument of crime.
And now there is the question of the role of his subordinates. Everyone understands that this issue can arise not only in Ukraine or The Hague. According to the principle of universal jurisdiction, this issue will be relevant anywhere, in any civilized country. When people say, “So what, these Sokolov or Kobylash are not going anywhere. But, excuse me, there are hundreds of officers, midshipmen, and sailors in the navy – each of them, from the point of view of the current legal situation, is at least a witness. Perhaps an accomplice, if their position allows it.
That is, now everyone from the navy or aviation is well aware that at least he and his entire family will never see sunny Egypt or even sunny Yerevan for the rest of their lives. They will not leave the country, and they are all dangerous to the Kremlin. The entire professional staff of the Black Sea Fleet are now potential witnesses or accomplices to crimes,” explains Borys Babin.
The expert emphasizes another interesting detail of the International Criminal Court’s decision: the new track of the ICC states that both the commander of the Russian Air Force and the commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet committed not only war crimes, but also crimes against humanity. According to Borys Babin, this is extremely important, as the ICC suspects that these actions are part of Russia’s deliberate aggressive policy.
“As the Court itself explains, it came up with this suspicion because the actions of these individuals have signs of systematic nature and are obviously part of the aggressor’s state policy. This is important, because in the future we can argue this on any international platform and say that there is a direct court decision – Russia’s state policy has a criminal form from the point of view of international law,” summarized Borys Babin.
This is the second wave of arrest warrants issued by the ICC for Russian officials involved in crimes in Ukraine. On March 17, 2023, the Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for President Putin and Russian Children’s Ombudsman Lvova-Belova in the context of Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine.
The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, said at the time that there was compelling evidence to show that Putin and Lvova-Belova were responsible for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied areas of Ukraine. According to Khan, there are “hundreds of cases” of illegal deportation of Ukrainian minors committed by Russia in the context of its aggression against Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity that began in 2014. Read more about this in StopFake’s piece Fake: Russian Evacuation of Ukrainian Children Is Not War Crime.
