After Russian forces seized the city of Kherson in March 2022, occupation authorities put up billboards that said, “Russia is here forever.” Eight months later, in November 2022, the Ukrainian military liberated the city, driving Russian troops back across the Dnipro River. To this day, the river marks the front line in the region. And the Russian forces on the other side are still finding ways to terrorize Kherson’s population.
The Beet editor Eilish Hart spoke to Belkis Wille, an associate director in the Crisis, Conflict, and Arms Division at Human Rights Watch.
– The report says that Russian forces appear to be “deliberately or recklessly” carrying out drone strikes against civilians and civilian objects. How should we understand the difference between a deliberate strike and a reckless one?
– In this case, when we’re talking specifically about drones, deliberate means that the operator sees a civilian, identifies this [person] as a civilian, and decides to carry out the attack knowing that this is a civilian. Reckless would be where they see someone they think might be military, but they’re not taking the measures needed to either verify that they’re military or to meet their obligation under international humanitarian law, which is to presume that someone is civilian unless you have evidence to counter that.
1·2 months ago