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Kremlin Dismisses ICC Arrest Warrants for Military Officers

The Kremlin in Moscow. Valery Sharifulin / TASS

The Kremlin said Wednesday that it does not recognize the International Criminal Court's arrest warrants for two senior Russian military officers over their role in Moscow's war against Ukraine.

The court accused Lieutenant General Sergei Kobylash and Navy Admiral Viktor Sokolov of targeting Ukraine's power infrastructure with strikes between October 2022 and March 2023.

"We don't recognize this," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, noting that Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute that established the ICC.

"This is not the first decision, we also know that there are also various closed processes going on there, which are kept secret," he added.

The Hauge-based court issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin in March last year, a ruling that Moscow described as "void."

Russia issued its own arrest warrant against the ICC's president in response.

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