What Good Is International Law If Is Is Always Ignored?
In the days after Russia launched its invasion into Ukraine, there is accumulating evidence that Vladimir Putin has ordered warfare tactics that facilitate the commission of war crimes with deadly attacks on civilians and the use of banned munitions.
Investigative journalists who are benefiting from the mass of open source intelligence documentation coming out of Ukrainian warzone locations are finding definitive evidence of Russia causing mass civilian casualties, including through the use of “cluster bombs in civilian areas”; this evidence is divined from credible video and stills of the conflict.
Footage of an attack on a residential park in Kharkiv Monday shows civilians walking just prior to a rapid sequence of explosions, an explosion pattern indicative of a cluster bomb strike. Additionally, dashcam footage also shot in Kharkiv, shows a cluster bomb detonating on a road there last Friday.
And although the evidence isn’t 100 percent definitive that Russian military forces have used thermobaric weapons in Ukraine, those weapons are indisputably deployed on Ukrainian soil. Reporters in Kyiv are describing explosions powerful and bright enough to light up the night sky, “like lightning,” characteristic of the use of those banned weapons.
Over the weekend, reporters south of Belgorod, Russia, near the Ukrainian border, reported they had seen Russian thermobaric multiple-rockets launchers headed for the Ukrainian front lines.
US Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, tweeted “[Russia] has now deployed TOS-1 launchers to the outskirts of heavily populated areas. Thermobaric weapons against civilian targets have zero military purpose; it would be a war crime aimed at terrorizing & slaughtering people into submission.”
Other Ukrainian sources posted videos of TOS-1 launchers rolling through the streets of Tokmak, in southeastern Ukraine.
US Defense officials have corroborated that the Russians have deployed thermobaric TOS-1 rocket launchers in the Ukrainian battle sphere but refused to acknowledge their locations. Before a congressional intelligence hearing Monday, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, stated pointedly, “They used the vacuum bomb today...The devastation that Russia is trying to inflict on Ukraine is large.”
The International Criminal Court chief prosecutor said evidence was being collected on alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide as part of an investigation probing Russian actions in Ukraine. The probe was launched after 39 nations called for an inquiry to be opened. The probe will cover actions in Ukraine taken since November 21, 2013.
The Lansing Institute issued a report stating, “The Russians keep demonstrating serious violations of international conventions; the same war crime pattern was used in the Central African Republic and Libya.”
Why This Is Important
Vladimir Putin’s use of thermobaric and cluster bomb munitions as primary weaponry – as well as a penchant for ignoring international and humanitarian law – is well documented.
He ordered the use of banned weaponry and turned a blind eye to crimes against humanity – both through its own military and via a Russian State-sponsored mercenary group calling themselves the Wagner Group – in Chechnya in 1999, in Syria in 2015, in Lybia in 2019, and in the Central African Republic in 2021. Today, Putin has dropped all pretense of plausible deniability from war crimes through the use of a proxy group, to overtly allow his military to employ the same tactics as the mercenaries.
The violation of international and humanitarian law – subjects that often lend themselves to interpretation and manipulation – is something that happens in war zones. In many respects, acts of war are, by definition, crimes against humanity and, therefore, every nation that engages in acts of war is vulnerable to transgressing those lines of morality.
But there is a gigantic difference between the ravages of war and the deliberate decision to utilize weaponry and tactics that the overwhelming majority of the world has agreed cross the line of humanity even during times of war.
So, too, is it a serious matter when a nation purposefully ignores agreements to which they are signatories.
As reported by ForeignPolicyNews.org:
“On a diplomatic level, Russia has violated the obligations it agreed to under the Helsinki Final Act. This 1975 agreement between 35 nations (including the then USSR) created the framework for the last four decades of European security cooperation. The Act also spurred the creation of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe of which post-Soviet Russia and Ukraine are members, tethering both to the prior agreements in the Act.
“The Act overtly reaffirms on several occasions the importance of respect for national sovereignty, territorial integrity, inviolability of frontiers, and non-intervention in internal affairs. The Act even dictates that ‘participating States will refrain from any acts constituting a threat of force or direct or indirect use of force against another participating State.’
“More explicitly Russia violated its 1994 agreements under the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances. This security settlement essentially guaranteed Ukrainian territorial sovereignty and political independence against the other signatories in exchange for Ukraine turning over its nuclear weapons arsenal, and acceding to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. It was signed by Ukraine, the US, Russia, and the UK in 1994, and jointly reaffirmed by the United States and Russia in 2006.”
With Putin’s unprovoked invasion into Ukraine, he has blatantly violated an international agreement that literally disarmed Ukraine as a threat to Russia. He overtly and purposely violated a treaty that removed Ukraine's ability to possess a lethal deterrent to a Russian invasion.
By invading Ukraine after having provided guarantees to not only the Ukrainian people but also to the international community that he would respect Ukraine as an independent and sovereign nation, he proves that his intention to invade Ukraine was calculated and premeditated.
To add injury to insult – literally, conclusive evidence is mounting that Putin has green-lighted the use of both cluster bombs and thermobaric weaponry in the conflict. His use of banned weaponry can only be seen as the measure of his contempt for the Ukrainian people; people he sees as not deserving of the protections of international and humanitarian law.
Human Rights Watch cited a 1990 Central Intelligence Agency report that described the effects of a thermobaric explosion in a confined space:
“Those near the ignition point are obliterated. Those at the fringe are likely to suffer many internal, thus invisible injuries, including burst eardrums and crushed inner ear organs, severe concussions, ruptured lungs, and internal organs, and possibly blindness.”
The Nazis created crude versions of these weapons during World War II and both the Soviet Union and its successor nation, Russia, have employed them since the 1960s, using them against China during the Sino-Soviet conflict of 1969, and in Afghanistan in 1979. Putin also ordered them used in Chechnya and provided them to separatist rebels in Dunbas in eastern Ukraine prior to the current conflict.
To provide perspective, the United States has used these weapons – more commonly known in the West as “Daisey-Cutters” and MOAB munitions – in Vietnam and in the mountains of Afghanistan, respectively.
The major difference between the US use and Putin’s use of these weapons is that the US deployment of these weapons was exclusively limited to war zones as permitted by international law and the Geneva Conventions. Putin’s deployment of these weapons, on the other hand, is being implemented “indiscriminately,” which is in clear violation of international and humanitarian law.
So, as I opined in an earlier article and on a recent podcast, Putin has forever ceded both his credibility and his claim to morality; he has, by his abdication of his commitment to international treaty and law – and through his repeated use of banned weaponry that fall into the category of weapons of mass destruction, emerged as a threat to every nation on the face of the planet.
Putin has demonstrated that his word means nothing and that his guarantees are hollow, and since he can’t be trusted we must embrace the fact that there is no limit to what he will do to achieve his goals, including the summoning of armageddon by way of the unthinkable.
Today’s Headlines
Biden Launches ‘Big Bang’ of Regulations, Increasing Spending, Size of Government
In a 7-2 Vote, SCOTUS Denies Guantanamo Detainee’s Efforts to Out CIA Black Sites
Biden Administration Called Out for Not Making Energy Independence a Priority
After Supporting Closure of Keystone XL Pipeline Pelosi Favors Banning Russian Oil Imports
Scores Dead After Russian Missiles Strike Ukrainian Schools, Homes
International Criminal Court Opens Probe Into Possible War Crimes in Ukraine
Sweden Says Russian Violation of Its Airspace ‘Unacceptable’
Ukrainian Fighters Attacking ‘Stalled’ Russian Convoy Approaching Kyiv
Georgian Foreign Legion Fighting Russians in Ukraine: 'We'll Hold On Until the End'
Ukraine, Russia Agree on ‘Humanitarian Corridors’ for Civilians
Russian Billionaire Places $1 Million Bounty on Putin's Head
Ukraine Receives $42 Million in Crypto Donations Toward War Efforts
Senate Approves Measure to End Vaccine Mandate for Healthcare Workers
New Study Reveals Hydroxychloroquine Benefits Hospitalized COVID Patients
White House Says It Will Veto Bill Ending COVID National Emergency If Passed
CBS News Does Story About Transphobia in Ukraine as Bombs Fall on Country
Nonprofit Drug Manufacturer to Launch Low-Cost Insulin in US by 2024
