- Armed civilians without giving them a uniform. Breach of Geneva Conventions
- Ukrainian special forces command said Russian artillerymen will no longer be taken prisoner and will “all be killed for being complicit in criminal orders”. Killing surrendering soldiers is a war crime. Collective punishment is also one. Edit: they have since taken that statement back. I have not.
- Did not activate air raid sirens to warn civilian populations of artillery and air strikes. People have already died because of this; Russia gave warnings as per protocol which Ukraine did not relay in time.
- As per the discovery of biological labs near the border with Russia, there is a very serious possibility Zelensky is guilty of producing biological weapons. The labs have been confirmed by the US gov, but no proof yet that they were meant for biological warfare.
- Forcing battles to happen in civilian zones, thus exposing them to danger and preventing their protection.
- Possibility of using child soldiers, as the Ukrainian army is now training children to use AKs, during wartime.
- Ukrainian forces were (accidentally) caught using Red Cross vans to transport soldiers and materiel. The symbol of the cross itself can only be used by the organisation and is protected under the Geneva Conventions; it can only be used by medical units who must then be treated like civilians.
Feel free to contribute. (the list above only reflects crimes Zelensky himself can be responsible for, to the best of our knowledge based on information that comes out of Ukraine. This list is also not legal advice, as only a trial will be able to determine which crimes have been committed and who is responsible for them).
Note: Some items on this list may include actions committed under Poroshenko (2014-2019).
(1) Blocking flow of river water to Crimea — collective punishment for voting to secede and join RF
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-03-19/russia-vs-ukraine-crimea-s-water-crisis-is-an-impossible-problem-for-putin
(2) Humiliating treatment of POWs, parading humiliating photos and videos of them on social media — violation of Geneva Convention of 1949, which states: “Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity.” (Part II, Article 13) and “Prisoners of war are entitled in all circumstances to respect for their persons and their honour.” (Part II, Article 14)
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Geneva_Convention/Third_Geneva_Convention
(3) Covering up war crimes by prosecuting them as regular crimes — as openly discussed last year by a Ukrainian lawmaker working to address this, in interview with Western NGO (i.e. biased in favor of the post-Maidan government):
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/oleksandra-matviychuk-ukraine-needs-war-crime-legislation/
Excerpt below, emphasis added:
“We have Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (“Violation of the laws and customs of war”), which establishes responsibility for war crimes. But it is absolutely unsuitable. It does not clearly define what war crimes are, it refers to international law. That is, you need to know about 30 international treaties and be able to use them. In Ukraine, as a country of the former Soviet Union, which has renewed its independence and is trying to build a developed democracy, the level of legal consciousness remains instructive. That is, if something is not spelled out in the Criminal Code, no one will look for an international convention and try to apply it. After analysing court cases over the past six years, we found that until recently only two sentences had been passed for war crimes.”
(4) The videotaped torture of a captured Russian MMA fighter Maxim Ryndovsky — can’t vouch for authenticity of this one, but this is according to Clint Ehrlich, a “foreign-policy analyst” whose work appears in Western press (WaPo, BBC, Foreign Policy Magazine)
https://twitter.com/ClintEhrlich/status/1500254722816569344
(4) Not a war crime per se but Ukraine’s creation of an international legion of foreign fighters has involved
advertisementssocial media posts soliciting people from most countries of the world, including countries which are bound by treaty to not allow their citizens to join such units.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Mercenary_Convention
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Legion_of_Territorial_Defense_of_Ukraine
https://www.reuters.com/article/idAFL5N2V659C
(5) What ever the fuck this is /s
(6) Failure to investigate and prosecute the mass killing in Odessa during 2014 coup — not a war crime necessarily idk
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/356691143_The_Maidan_Massacre_in_Ukraine_Revelations_from_Trials_and_Investigation
“Not a single person is convicted or under arrest for the massacre of the protesters and the police almost 8 years after one of the most documented mass killings in history.”
(7) Deliberate violation of ceasefires throughout 2014-2022 period, in clear violation of Minsk Agreements — most memorable example to me is from last year, when Ukraine government used a Turkish-made drone to attack people in rebel-held territory, and then published the video on their official Facebook pages.
https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-turkish-drone-separatists/31532268.html
I’m keeping an eye on that one because Ukraine has signed the international convention against mercenary work, and the biggest defining factor of a mercenary is being motivated by pay, or receiving substantial amount of money as reward that soldiers of the same functions and grade would not receive. They’re not doing that yet…
One of the major defining factors is whether they are held to the standards of military law within that country. For example the French Foreign Legion is part of the army and subject to French Military Court Martial. Whereas Triple Canopy in the US is a PMC(mercenary) due to the inability to Court Martial their “soldiers” for crimes in theater. They are only liable in the civilian courts which effectively means they are liable to no one.
You can read the UN text here: https://treaties.un.org/doc/Treaties/1989/12/19891204 08-54 AM/Ch_XVIII_6p.pdf (english version starts on page 19), there’s a whole bunch of conditions (that must all be met as I understand it), but the one that comes back the most is essentially about money.
Money and 3rd party status to the conflict. The US gets away with calling PMC’s military contractors because the fighters are from one of the nations involved in the conflict. But a Congolese fighter in Afghanistan would be a mercenary due to 3rd party status. This is assuming that they were also being paid more than rank-and-file soldiers.
But let’s be real. The US is party to every conflict and can claim “War on terror” to send mercenaries to anywhere in the global south without consequences. Along with the geo-political reality that the US has giant double standards.
I am very interested in where these foreign fighters in Ukraine are getting paid though. They are “volunteers” on paper. But there are go fund me style fundraisers to help equip them and support them. I would bet my last dollar that our friends at the CIA are donating funds and equipment. Some of these fighters are much better equipped than the Ukrainian or Russians. I know they can bring some gear from the US. But they have weapons and explosives that they definitely didn’t bring and Ukraine doesn’t field. The real surprise is they have communication gear and night vision that is either not available to civilians or ridiculously expensive. I saw one guy with USARMY comms gear and night vision that is $50,000 to $70,000 per unit. That’s not a volunteer. That’s a spook from an agency that doesn’t exist. If I can dig up the picture I will link it below.
Yeah, that’s a very important question. There’s also NGOs now that help them get to Ukraine (not necessarily in fighting roles though, they’re also connecting volunteers for civilian and refugee support).
Gonna leave at that, but if first-person testimony meets your standard for credibility, this westerner has some decent English-subtitled interviews with inhabitants of the frontline villages, including one from before invasion (I think) where a farmer talks about suspected chemical agents being deployed to kill crops and cattle. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbjTWVaRx6jMN5ZYgbqe2_w
Till next time.