Lithuania asks ICC to issue new arrest warrants for Russian officials over attacks on Ukrainian energy sector

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budris has asked prosecutors at the International Criminal Court to issue new arrest warrants for Russian officials responsible for attacks on Ukraineʼs civilian and energy infrastructure.

This is stated on the website of the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“These systematic attacks, which are clearly intended to leave the population of Ukraine without electricity, heating, and water in the middle of winter, cannot be qualified as anything other than a deliberate intent to physically destroy Ukrainians as a group,” Budris wrote in a letter to the ICC prosecutors.

As the minister notes, in Lithuaniaʼs opinion, these actions by Russia can be investigated as a crime of genocide.

In the letter, he called on ICC to consider issuing new arrest warrants for Russian officials responsible for attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities, as well as expanding the arrest warrants already issued to include new international crimes and the crime of genocide.

• In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin and the childrenʼs rights ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova. They are accused of overseeing the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, a war crime.
• In 2024, ICC issued an arrest warrant for former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov for attacks on civilian targets (including energy infrastructure).

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