Can civilian and military installations be clarified in a state of war? For example, there are military and civilian ships docked in ports, substations provide power to both military enterprises and civilians, and oil refineries produce oil that can be used for military vehicles as well as vehicles for ordinary people. As for the grain in the grain warehouse, not to mention it, the soldiers and the people need it alike.
So in this situation, how can you distinguish whether it is military or civilian? In particular, in a state of war, although the United Nations has formulated the principle of priority in relevant international law that all parties must protect civilians and all civilian installations in war, and clearly stipulates that the belligerents must abide by some basic principles, such as the principle of distinction, the principle of proportionality and the principle of advance warning. The purpose of these principles is to protect innocent civilians and civilian installations against unnecessary destruction and injury.
Many facilities have dual uses in peacetime and wartime, and the ambiguity of the distinction can have a significant impact on the manner of war, as well as its consequences, and the requirement for belligerents to exercise restraint and caution in order to maximize the protection of innocent civilians and civilian installations seems to be even more difficult.
Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, this issue has highlighted many irreconcilable contradictions. Since the winter of 2022, Russia has continued to attack the port infrastructure of Odessa, grain warehouses, and many power supply targets in Ukraine, including Kyiv, Kharkiv and other places, causing Ukrainian soldiers and civilians to suffer. On the contrary, the Russian army hopes to transform it into the initiative on the battlefield through these bombings.
The strategic intention of the Russian army is obvious, through large-scale destruction and destruction of Ukraine's logistics infrastructure, resulting in power outages and heating outages and the destruction of a large number of living materials in various places, affecting its military production, and causing a bruise in the ability to supply to the front line, which is conducive to the Russian army's offensive on the front line and gaining the initiative on the battlefield.
More importantly, while bringing difficulties to the people's lives, they also create panic and fear war to achieve their goal of making a forced landing on the other side.
The Russian army's indiscriminate bombardment of the port of Odessa not only prevented the docking of Ukrainian military ships, but also undermined Ukraine's ability to export grain to the Black Sea through the port in exchange for foreign exchange to obtain war funds, and at the same time brought great harm to the local innocent people.
Although Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of attacking civilian targets, and the United Nations has condemned these actions, the Russian side has always emphasized that it is a precision strike against key military targets in Ukraine.
In this situation, of course, the Ukrainian side wants to use the same way to fight back against Russia, but after all, this is an asymmetric war, and the United States and European countries are unwilling to overstimulate Russia, and the range of aid to Ukraine is limited to Ukraine. This forced Ukraine to work hard to develop its own long-range attack drones in a passive situation, (of course, this does not exclude the technical support of the West) to draw a gourd in the same way and pay tribute to Russia in the same way.
As a result, in addition to the border cities close to Ukraine such as Belgorod Oblast and Bryansk, oil refineries, oil depots, military industrial enterprises, and substations in the deep cities of the Russian rear, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, have been repeatedly attacked by Birdland.
These actions of the Ukrainian side, of course, have had a certain impact on Russia's military operations, such as the destruction of the oil depot that was originally delivered to the front line through the Belgorod region, and the forced replenishment from the oil depot further back; The destruction of the substation affected the production of ammunition for the military industry, etc., delayed the delivery of military supplies, which militarily benefited Ukraine.
At the same time, these attacks have also caused serious harm to ordinary people in Russia, with power outages causing heating outages and flames at oil depots** igniting panic in the hearts of the people. Moscow and St. Petersburg in the context of the war seem to be affected, but the Ukrainians are happy to see this and want to give back to the Russians what they have experienced.
Although Russia is also very angry about these attacks, and has opened a series of investigations, condemnations and complaints to the United Nations, it has not been able to prevent the continuation of the attacks in Ukraine.
These actions by both sides have been repeatedly and strongly condemned by United Nations human rights organizations, but the destruction of civilian facilities continues unabated. This was the case in the past, and it will continue in the present and in the future, if the war does not end.
In modern warfare, the destruction of civilian facilities can cause great harm and suffering to the enemy's people, and at the same time, it can also have an important impact on the outcome of the war, thereby weakening the enemy's war efforts. Therefore, it is simply impossible for the warring parties in Greece, especially the one who is waging the war, to abide by the rules of international law, to practice humanitarianism, and to protect the civilian population, and if so, they will not start the war.
The outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war has made people around the world see that on the battlefield, the soldiers of the warring parties are from ordinary people; Civilians were innocently devoured by the shelling, and civilians were displaced by the destruction of living facilities and houses, leaving them without food and clothing.
War is a disaster among disasters for ordinary people, and only embracing peace is the best demand of mankind!