Ukrainian soldiers charge a Grad rocket launcher system in the Luhansk …
On September 1, 2014 President Vladimir Putin answered a reporter’s questioned during a visit to North-Eastern Federal University regarding the situation in the Ukraine.
What he said was very interesting:
“I will answer your question. The root of the tragedy currently unfolding, as I see it, is that the current government in Kiev does not want to engage in a substantive political dialogue with the country’s eastern regions. And I mean here a real political dialogue on the matters of substance.
What objectives are the southeast regions’ militia pursuing in their current military operations and why have they stepped up their activity? They are responding to the fact that the Ukrainian regular armed forces have surrounded towns and are firing directly at residential districts. What the militia are trying to do is drive back these armed forces and their artillery so as to prevent them from shooting at residential areas. Unfortunately however, many countries, including in Europe, prefer to ignore this fact.
I think it is a very important process that is starting now – the process of direct negotiations. We worked on this long and hard and reached an agreement on the matter with President Poroshenko in Minsk. Now these contacts will resume.”
Source: Kremlin.ru
The intentional shelling of a residential area is considered a war crime under international law.
A war crime is a serious violation of the laws and customs of war (also known as international humanitarian law) giving rise to individual criminal responsibility. Examples of war crimes such as:
- murdering, mistreating, or deporting civilian residents of an occupied territory to slave labor camps
- murdering or mistreating prisoners of war or civilian internees
- forcing protected persons to serve in the forces of a hostile power
- killing hostages
- killing or punishing spies or other persons convicted of war crimes without a fair trial
- wantonly destroying cities, towns, villages, or any object not warranted by military necessity
On July 1, 2002, the International Criminal Court, a treaty-based court located in The Hague, came into being for the prosecution of war crimes committed on or after that date. Several nations, most notably the United States, China, Russia, and Israel, have criticized the court. The United States in particular has been accused of ghastly war crimes in the war on terror, the bombing in Libya and killing of civilians in Afghanistan.