Russian President Vladimir Putin is cautious about where he travels abroad these days. To visit any of the 123 countries that are members of the International Criminal Court risks his arrest on a warrant for alleged war crimes in Ukraine. While the warrant has limited Putin’s travels, it’s far from certain that he or other senior Russian leaders will be brought to justice under international law. Meanwhile, the ICC is investigating other potential atrocities. For its part, Ukraine put captured Russian soldiers on trial for war crimes within months of the conflict’s start.

They are violations of the rules of warfare as set out in various treaties, notably the Geneva Conventions, a series of agreements concluded between 1864 and 1949. War crimes include willful killing, torture, rape, using starvation as a weapon, shooting combatants who have surrendered, deploying banned weapons such as chemical and biological arms, and deliberately attacking civilian targets. The Kremlin has rejected allegations that its troops have committed such transgressions in Ukraine.

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