Russian leaders know they’re committing war crimes. Their laws of war manual says so
The Russian armed forces and their commanders know they are committing war crimes in Ukraine. It says so in the 2001 “Manual on International Humanitarian Law for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.”
In my 2017 book, “The Law of War in the 21st Century,” I thought it might be useful for readers and researchers to have examples of non-NATO views of the law of armed conflict, so in an appendix I included law of war manuals that might be difficult to find, including the 2001 Russian manual. The translation was prepared by a certified translator from an original in my possession.
The manual requires commanders to be aware that, generally, attacks are forbidden on targets including concentrations of civilians, their dwellings, infrastructure necessary to their survival, nuclear power plants and cultural icons. It also makes clear that attacks on those targets employing weapons such as indirect artillery and missile fire, indiscriminate automatic weapons fire, and landmines can constitute separate war crimes. [Continue reading…]