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Two signals from Europe's legal and political fronts
Summary
A look back at the ICC warrants and Moldova's EU accession steps in the days before 26 June 2024.
What did the final days of June 2024 reveal about the pressures on Russia and the widening of Europe's political map? By 26 June 2024, two developments were fresh.
On 25 June, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Valery Gerasimov, Russia's Chief of the General Staff, and Sergei Shoigu, the former defence minister. The warrants came under the court's investigation in Ukraine.
Four days earlier, on 21 June, Moldovan president Maia Sandu signed the decree that began negotiations on Moldova's accession to the European Union. She also announced that the first Moldova–EU intergovernmental conference would take place on 25 June, the same day as the ICC announcement.
Why the pairing matters
The two events belong to different tracks: one judicial, one a matter of enlargement. Both, though, concern states shaped by the war in Ukraine. The ICC step targeted senior Russian military and former defence figures within an investigation of events in Ukraine. The Moldovan step moved a neighbouring country into formal talks with the EU.
Taken together, they showed legal and diplomatic processes advancing on the same date, even as Ukraine's own accession to the EU remained a subject of the wider enlargement agenda.
