What the ICC warrants and a sunk ship signalled in March 2024
A retrospective on the events reported between 5 and 6 March 2024, from international justice to the Black Sea and Yerevan.
What did the news of 6 March 2024 add to the picture of Russia's war and its standing abroad? Taken together with reports from the day before, it showed pressure on several fronts at once.
On 5 March 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Sergey Kobylash, commander of the Long-Range Aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces, and Viktor Sokolov, commander of the Black Sea Fleet. The warrants concerned their involvement in Russian strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure. They placed named senior commanders, not just the campaign in general, within the scope of international justice.
The same day, the Russian Navy patrol ship Sergey Kotov was sunk in the Black Sea after being struck by Ukrainian MAGURA V5 naval drones. Read next to the warrant for the Black Sea Fleet's commander, the two reports put the fleet at the centre of the day's news, one in legal terms and one in military terms.
The diplomatic picture shifted as well. On 5 March 2024, Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok signed a bill authorising the Foreign Ministry to ratify Sweden's accession to NATO, a formal step in the enlargement process.
Then, on 6 March 2024, Armenia formally asked Russia to withdraw its troops from Zvartnots International Airport near Yerevan. Armenia said the airport must be served solely by the Armenian Border Guard. Russia had maintained a military presence there since 1992, so the request touched a arrangement of more than three decades.
No single item settled anything. The warrants were not an arrest, the naval loss was one ship, the Hungarian signature was a procedural step, and the Armenian request was a request. But on these two days, a court, a navy, a military alliance and a former partner state each registered Russia's position in a different way.
