1/ Video has emerged of Ukrainian soldiers apparently opening fire on a group of surrendered Russian prisoners, killing all of them, after an unsurrendered Russian opened fire on the Ukrainians. Is this a war crime? Here's why it may be in a grey area. ⬇️
2/ Incidents of this kind are unfortunately not uncommon in war. Here's an example that took place in the Battle of Menin Road on 20 September 1917, as recorded in the official Australian war history.
3/ Prisoners are of course protected under the Geneva Conventions. But the Conventions also prohibit the practice of 'perfidy'. Here's what Article 37 of the 1977 Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 says:
4/ "1. It is prohibited to kill, injure or capture an adversary by resort to perfidy.
5/ Acts inviting the confidence of an adversary to lead him to believe that he is entitled to, or is obliged to accord, protection under the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, with intent to betray that confidence, shall constitute perfidy.
6/ The following acts are examples of perfidy:
(a) The feigning of an intent to negotiate under a flag of truce or of a surrender ..."
Suspected perfidy is the usual reason behind incidents such as the one shown in the video.
(a) The feigning of an intent to negotiate under a flag of truce or of a surrender ..."
Suspected perfidy is the usual reason behind incidents such as the one shown in the video.
7/ If a group of soldiers appears to surrender, their adversaries have to make themselves vulnerable to take them captive. That can be exploited to ambush them.
During World War II, the Japanese routinely used perfidy to lure American troops into often suicidal ambushes.
During World War II, the Japanese routinely used perfidy to lure American troops into often suicidal ambushes.
8/ One example was recounted by Second Lieutenant D. A. Clark of the 7th Marines, who served at Guadalcanal:
"I was on my first patrol here, and we were moving up a dry stream bed. We saw 3 Japs come down the river bed out of the jungle.
"I was on my first patrol here, and we were moving up a dry stream bed. We saw 3 Japs come down the river bed out of the jungle.
9/ The one in front was carrying a white flag. We thought they were surrendering. When they got up to us they dropped the white flag and then all 3 threw hand grenades."
10/ There were many similar incidents of surrendered Japanese soldiers attacking their captors, one even attacking the surgeon operating on him with his own scalpel. US troops soon stopped taking prisoners in many cases because it was often simply too dangerous.
11/ As a Marine on Iwo Jima put it: "They always told you take prisoners but we had some bad experiences on Saipan taking prisoners, you take them and then as soon as they get behind the lines they drop grenades and you lose a few more people.
12/ You get a little bit leery of taking prisoners when they are fighting to the death and so are you."
13/ The belligerent Russian soldier seen at the end of the first video is clearly the first to open fire. The Ukrainians retaliate in kind. It's unclear whether the men on the ground were killed in the ensuring firefight, or were shot in cold blood afterwards.
14/ I've no doubt the incident will be investigated by the Ukrainian authorities, but it's not going to be a simple black and white question of right or wrong. There's at least an arguable case that the Russian who opened fire was guilty of perfidy – itself a war crime.
15/ Killing that soldier was a legitimate act. The question the Ukrainians will need to answer is whether there was any legitimacy in killing the rest of the Russians, which may depend on how it happened (random fire or deliberate execution).
16/ But for now, I'd suggest reserving judgement until there has been an investigation and a verdict. /end
This is helpful in identifying who made the first hostile action:
Incidentally, from the reported location (Makiivka), there's a pretty strong likelihood that these were mobilised Russians sent to recapture the village.
I've been following the story of the Russian mobiks in Makiivka in this thread and the ones linked from it:
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