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Attacks on civilians: War crimes are well documented. Will those responsible have to take responsibility for this?
The Russian attack on Ukraine is in itself a war crime. Aggressive wars are prohibited under international law. But Russia will hardly have to answer for this, says Oliver Diggelmann, Professor of International Law at the University of Zurich: “The UN Security Council would have to refer the matter to the International Criminal Court. That won’t happen because Russia has a veto power in the Security Council.” The injustice of this war must therefore be investigated on the basis of individual war crimes, says Diggelmann.
Bombs on residential quarters
In an interview with the “Rundschau”, the international law professor assessed several well-documented atrocities as war crimes. For example the shooting of a civilian on a highway near Kyiv. Or the events of March 3 in Chernihiv in northern Ukraine: a video shows bombs hitting a residential area. Several dozen people die. Yulia M. experienced the attack at close range. She shows the “Rundschau” how the pressure wave devastated her apartment: “Everything fell down. The walls, the doors fell on the children. I got them out of the rubble – all three.”
Oliver Diggelmann says: “If these pictures show the whole truth, then it is clearly a war crime: a space between blocks of flats is a civilian object. For example, Russia cannot say that it was used militarily.” The Russian Embassy in Bern did not respond to questions about the Chernihiv attack.
Air raid on clinic
In another case, however, the Russian representation in Switzerland denies the accusation of war crimes: On March 9, a Russian airstrike hit the maternity hospital in the besieged port city of Mariupol. Two people and an unborn child died as a result of the attack. Pictures of a surviving pregnant woman went around the world.
The Russian embassy denies the airstrike: “The Russian Air Force did not conduct any missions to hit ground targets near Mariupol that day.” The image of the pregnant woman was “staged”. As alleged proof, the embassy sent the “Rundschau” an undated video of a food distribution in Mariupol, which is supposed to show the woman unharmed. The aunt of those affected, however, confirmed to the “Rundschau” that her niece was injured in this attack. In the meantime, she gave birth to her child.
Russian allegations
Russia, for its part, accuses Ukraine of war crimes: On March 14, parts of an intercepted Ukrainian missile killed 21 civilians in Donetsk. Ukraine denies this, and there is no independent confirmation of the authorship of the attack. Ukraine is violating – albeit to a much lesser extent – international humanitarian law on another point: the authorities have publicly presented Russian prisoners of war. International law expert Diggelmann says that while this is a violation of the Geneva Conventions, it is not a war crime. The violation is not serious enough.
Charges against Putin not ruled out
The International Criminal Court is already investigating suspected war crimes and collecting evidence in Ukraine. Oliver Diggelmann does not rule out that the evidence against Vladimir Putin could one day be enough for a trial. And even if Russia’s president never has to answer in court: “The ongoing efforts to prosecute war crimes are a signal to other tyrants in the world.”