Ukraine-Russia war latest: International arrest warrants issued for former Russian defence minister and top general (2024)

A top European court has found Russia guilty of committing multiple human rights violations since it annexed the Crimean peninsula a decade ago.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said today that breaches included violations of the the right to life, theprohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment, freedom ofreligion and freedom of expression among others.

The ruling, on a case brought by Ukraine, ordered Moscow to "takemeasures as soon as possible for the safe return of the relevantprisoners transferred from Crimea to penal facilities located onthe territory of the Russian Federation".

The Strasbourg-based court earlier said the case was not concerned with whether the Crimea annexation was lawful under international law.

Russia said it would not comply with ECHR decisions issued after 15 March 2022, meaning the impact of the verdict could be limited.

Russian lender Sberbank has begun opening offices in occupied parts of the four Ukrainian regions it claims to have annexed.

The bank announced on Friday that it would open 46 offices during the week.

In 2022, Vladimir Putin signed laws absorbingDonetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia into Russia in a move rejected as a sham by Ukraine and the West.

Away from the ICC arrest warrants, the EU is officially launching membership talks with Ukraine today in what Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described as a "historic day" for his country.

Olga Stefanishyna, deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, will lead Ukraine's delegation at a conference in Luxembourg, which marks the official opening of the long-awaited talks.

There are several stages ahead in Ukraine's years-long effort to join the bloc, with membership, if it comes, potentially years away. Negotiations themselves are also unlikely to begin for several months.

But the launching of official talks sends a message of solidarity to Ukraine beyond the financial support provided by EU nations so far.

"Generations of our people are realising their European dream. Ukraine is returning to Europe," Mr Zelenskyy said in an online post.

Moldova, which applied for EU membership in the wake of Russia's invasion, will take part in a separate conference to launch its own accession process.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has welcomed the arrest warrants againstSergeiShoigu and Valery Gerasimov and said he wants to see them "behind bars".

In a post to social media, the Ukrainian president said the key Russian military figures were accused of being behind "barbaric" attacks against Ukraine's infrastructure.

"Every criminal involved in the planning and execution of these strikes must know that justice will be served. And we do hope to see them behind bars," he said.

Mr Zelenskyy said the decision by the International Criminal Court was a "clear indication that justice for Russian crimes against Ukrainians is inevitable".

"We look forward to more arrest warrants in order to deprive Russia of its sense of impunity. The feeling that has fuelled Russian crimes for decades. Accountability is the only way to put a stop to them," said the president.

Here we take a look at the top Russian figures facing International Criminal Court arrest warrants.

Both were heavily criticised by Russia's influential war bloggers for the army's failings in the first year of the war, when it suffered a series of embarrassing setbacks and retreats.

They were the targets of a revolt lead by mercenary Yevgeny Prigozhin in June 2023.

He had previously hurled abuse at them in a series of videos, accusing them of sabotaging the war effort and starving his Wagner fighters of ammunition.

Sergei Shoigu, 69, served as defence minister from 2012 until Vladimir Putin unexpectedly removed him in May andnamedhim secretary of the Security Council.

He was personally close to Mr Putin, holidaying with him in the forests and mountains of Mr Shoigu's native Siberia where the pair of them were photographed hiking and fishing together bare-chested.

But his position was sharply weakened by the arrest of one of his deputies in April this year in a major corruption scandal.

The affair has since widened, with more arrests at the defence ministry and the General Staff.

General Valery Gerasimov, 68, has been chief of the General Staff since 2012and is overall commander of the Russian war effort in Ukraine.

He has remained in his post but is potentiallyvulnerable, as his deputy at the General Staff is one of thosedetained and under investigation.

On the battlefield, however,Russia's fortunes have improved in recent months with a seriesof gradual gains.

The head of the General Staff is the mostsenior post in the armed forces after the president, who iscommander-in-chief, and the defence minister.

The job comes withone of Russia's three "nuclear briefcases", according to someWestern military analysts.

We're now getting the first reactions from Russia to the International Criminal Court's warrants to arrest Sergei Shoigu and General Valery Gerasimov on war crimes allegations.

The Russian Security Council has branded the decision "part of the hybrid war of the West against the Russian Federation", Russian state media Tass reported.

The warrant was insignificant and akin to "shaking of the air", the council said.

Ukraine's presidential chiefof staff has praised the International Criminal Court's move toissue arrest warrants for Russia's former defence minister and its chief of general staff.

Andriy Yermak said it was an important decision and the pair "bear individual responsibility".

Both will be "held responsible for evil", he said.

The court has accused Sergei Shoigu and General Valery Gerasimov of war crimes and the crime against humanity of inhumane acts for attacking civilian targets in Ukraine.

We now have three of the highest-ranking Kremlin figures orchestrating the war who face an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.

Sergei Shoigu, who was head of the defence ministry for the vast majority of the conflict; General Valery Gerasimov, head of the military; and of course, Vladimir Putin, leading the entire invasion.

But beyond embarrassment, what impact can an ICC warrant have?

There is no immediate likelihood of either suspect being detained.

Russia isn't a member of the global court, doesn't recognise its jurisdiction and refuses to hand over suspects.

It had signed the Rome Statute creating the court in 2000, but withdrew its backing in 2016, after the ICC classified Moscow's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula as an armed conflict.

The court's 123 member states are obliged to detain and transfer suspects if they cross their borders.

This includes all the EU states, as well as the UK, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Switzerland, 33 African countries and 19 nations in the South Pacific.

That doesn't mean they will hold up their end of the agreement. Sudan's former president, Omar al-Bashir, was indicted in 2009 on allegations of genocide in Darfur, but has never been handed in to the ICC.

This is despite traveling to a number of Arab and African countries, including ICC member states Chad, Djibouti, Jordan, Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, and Uganda, which declined to detain him.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Russia's former defence minister and its military chief of staff for allegedly attacking civilian targets in Ukraine.

The court is accusing Sergei Shoigu and General Valery Gerasimov of war crimes and the crime against humanity of inhumane acts.

The judges consider there to be reasonable grounds to believe that the men were responsible for "missile strikes carried out by the Russian armed forces against the Ukrainian electric infrastructure" from 10 October 2022 until at least 9 March, 2023.

"During this timeframe, 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," the court added.

The move obligates the court's 123 member states to arrest the pair and transfer them to The Hague for trial if they set foot on their territory.

Regular readers will remember that in March 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin on suspicion of unlawful deportation of children and unlawful transfer of people from Ukraine to Russia. It has restricted which countries Mr Putin can visit.

It also issued a warrant for Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Russia's commissioner for children's rights, on similar allegations.

Our senior correspondents and military experts have been taking your questions about the war in Ukraine.

This week, Carmy has asked:

Have Western media given an honest account of Ukrainian military failures over the last year? I know they've had weapons shortages and the aid was delayed but that's not the whole story, is it?

Military analyst Sean Bellhas this to say...

Thanks for your question, Carmy.

Clearly I cannot speak for all Western organisations, but having worked inside newsrooms for a couple of years now I do know the mainstream media does its best to provide an objective assessment of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

For my part I am not a reporter or journalist, but as a military analyst with nearly three decades of experience of military operations I leverage that experience - and contacts - to try to provide an objective review of the very dynamic situation on the ground.

However, all objective reporting requires access to information and that is often difficult to ensure during prolonged conflicts. Russia consistently denies damage caused by Ukrainian attacks - even when there is clear evidence to the contrary - and often seeks to mislead.

But the mainstream media - and I have seen this at Sky News - works tirelessly to try to ensure accurate reporting, despite the difficulties.

Before commenting on the tactical performance of Ukrainian forces, context is important.

Russia started the conflict with a significantly larger army, air force and navy, and also had greater quantities of, and more modern, military capability.

Russia also had the benefit of surprise - it had spent years planning this invasion, whereas Ukraine was being reassured up until the eve of the invasion that Russia had no plans to attack.

Moscow expected Ukraine to fall in a matter of days, but more than 800 days later Ukraine is not subjugated and Kyiv has pushed Russia out of a significant proportion of the lands once occupied.

Crucially, the bravery, determination and commitment of the Ukrainian military has been outstanding. It has been the single most important factor in ensuring that - despite the odds - Ukraine has prevailed.

Ukraine knows it cannot get embroiled in a traditional 20thcentury grinding war of attrition - Russia's greater mass would ultimately prevail.

Therefore, Ukraine has had to innovate, adapt and experiment, in the midst of a national battle for survival. Perhaps inevitably, not all of Ukraine's initiatives would have had the desired outcomes, but in the circ*mstances it is very hard to label such outcomes "mistakes".

Ultimately, books will be written after this brutal war to analyse and dissect each element, and that will be the time to assess the respective performances of the combatants and the timeliness and robustness of the West's response.

Meanwhile, I am confident that both sides will be analysing their battlefield performance, gaining experience and evolving tactics accordingly.

After all, in my experience you learn far more from your mistakes than you do your successes.