International humanitarian law (IHL), also known as the laws of war or the law of armed conflict, is a set of international laws that establish what can and can't be done in an armed conflict. The best known of these rules are found in the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, ratified by 196 countries..
What is the treaty between Russia and Ukraine?
The Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation was an agreement between Ukraine and Russia, signed in 1997, which fixed the principle of strategic partnership, the recognition of the inviolability of existing borders, and respect for territorial integrity and mutual .
Public reaction The invasion received widespread public condemnation internationally. Protests and demonstrations were held worldwide including in many post-Soviet countries and some in Russia itself.
The Russo-Ukrainian War is an ongoing international conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which began in February 2014. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine and supported pro-Russian separatists fighting the Ukrainian military in the Donbas war.
Apr 3, 2023First, international law and international institutions have been used to condemn Russia's illegal war. As the invasion began, the U.N. Security
Feb 23, 2022On February 24, President Putin declared war against Ukraine, and missile and shelling attacks began against multiple Ukrainian cities.
Both Ukraine and Russia are parties to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and Protocol I. What are the basic principles of the laws of war? International humanitarian law, or the laws of war, provides protections to civilians and other noncombatants from the hazards of armed conflict.
Does Ukraine qualify as a state under international law?
Indeed, they do not even qualify as states under international law, despite their purported secession from Ukraine and Russia’s recognition of them as independent
READ MORE: How to help people in Ukraine and refugees fleeing the conflict with Russia
Is Russia's invasion of Ukraine legal?
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine can, therefore, be legal only if it falls within one of those exceptions
It is completely uncontroversial that sending armed forces across the border of a state, without its consent, is a use of force
This happened when Russia sent tanks and infantry across the internationally recognised borders of Ukraine
International law ukraine and russia
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, national parliaments including those of Poland, Ukraine, Canada, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ireland declared that genocide was taking place. Scholars and commentators including Eugene Finkel, Timothy D. Snyder and Gregory Stanton; and legal experts such as Otto Luchterhandt and Zakhar Tropin, have made claims of varying degrees of certainty that Russia is committing genocide in Ukraine. A comprehensive report by the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights concluded that there exists a very serious risk of genocide in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Ethnic minority group
Russians are the largest ethnic minority in Ukraine. This community forms the largest single Russian community outside of Russia in the world. In the 2001 Ukrainian census, 8,334,100 identified as ethnic Russians ; this is the combined figure for persons originating from outside of Ukraine and the Ukrainian-born population declaring Russian ethnicity.
On 30 September 2022
Annexation of an undefined area in and around four Ukrainian oblasts
On 30 September 2022, Russia, amid an ongoing invasion of Ukraine, unilaterally declared its annexation of areas in and around four Ukrainian oblasts – Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia. The boundaries of the areas to be annexed and their borders were not defined; Russian officials stated that they would be defined later. None of the oblasts were fully under Russian control at the time of the declaration, nor since. If limited to the areas then under Russian control the annexation would still be the largest in Europe since World War II.
The use of cluster munitions during the Russian invasion of Ukraine (
The use of cluster munitions during the Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022–present) has been recorded by a number of eyewitnesses and journalists, as well as representatives of the UN, humanitarian and public organizations. In particular, the head of the UN Human Rights Council, Michelle Bachelet, reported on March 30 at least 24 cases since the beginning of the invasion. As of July 1, hundreds of attacks by Russian forces with cluster munitions have already been recorded in the settlements of the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson and Chernihiv regions. 215 civilians are known to have been killed in these shellings and 474 injured, many of which may go unreported. Both Russia as well as Ukraine have used cluster munitions during the conflict, however, Russian use has been extensive while Ukrainian use has been more limited.
