THE CHEKING PROCESS – Since the start of the war in Ukraine, a maternity ward, a theater and a shopping center have been targeted by the Russians. Can we speak of a “war crime”, as kyiv evokes it?
With its urban combats and its artillery duels, the war in Ukraine carries its procession of destruction. Entire cities, such as Mariupol on the shores of the Sea of Azov, or more recently Sieverodonetsk or Lisichansk, in the heart of Donbass, have been largely disfigured by the conflict. Amid the hundreds or even thousands of buildings and homes affected, some destroyed civilian buildings have been the focus of political and media attention. This was the case, among others, of the maternity ward or the Mariupol theatre, the Kramatorsk station and more recently a shopping center in Kremenchouk. Each time, the reactions of the two belligerents are the same: in kyiv, Russian war crimes are mentioned; in Moscow, it is announced that such a place with a civil vocation was occupied by the Ukrainian soldiers.
Conversely, to justify their “special military operation“, the Russians themselves have denounced since the beginning of the conflict the indiscriminate Ukrainian fire against the city of Donetsk, held by the separatists since 2014. The question of the destruction of civilian buildings arises in reality in each war: the destruction of hospitals by the Russian air force in Syria made international headlines for years, while in 2003 the United States was criticized for deadly strikes in Iraq, against Hilla hospital and the university Baghdad in particular, and more broadly for the use of cluster bombs unable to distinguish between civilians and soldiers when they are used in an urban context. In Syria from 2012 to 2016, the city of Aleppo was largely destroyed by Russian artillery which targeted the jihadist rebels there, as was that of Mosul in Iraq, taken over in 2017 from Daesh by the international coalition led by the UNITED STATES.
What is a “military objective» ?
But what does the law of armed conflict, also known as international humanitarian law, say about this? What is permitted and prohibited?…
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