the rules of war

The cruelty against the civilian population of the Russian artillery leaves unbearable images linked to a devastated daily life.

The flight of citizens on the outskirts of Kiev after a week of massive destruction turns its streets into civil cemeteries.

In Putin's strategy, war has no limits, but even war has its rules, and they do not include the indiscriminate murder of the population but rather its protection: they are not and cannot be a military objective.

Putin is doing the opposite in Ukraine: a war against people hunted on the run, war crimes broadcast in shocking images.

Since the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and its Additional Protocols of 1977, the creation of security zones is foreseen as an instrument to guarantee the protection of civilians in times of war.

It was a Resolution of December 14, 1990 of the United Nations General Assembly that established new protection formulas for the civilian population, such as humanitarian corridors, whether for the provision of humanitarian aid, the evacuation of people in danger or return.

The information on the ground is imprecise and both the Ukrainian government and the Kremlin have reproached each other for breaking the ceasefire in the area that was supposed to cover the humanitarian corridor of Volnovaja and Mariupol for the evacuation of civilians.

There are no official observers to verify compliance with the agreement to create these corridors, which exposes them to extreme fragility.

But protecting the population is “absolutely essential”, in the words of the United Nations Secretary, António Guterres.

Putin's extreme siege of Mariupol reveals that it is a strategic enclave to establish the connection between Crimea and the Donbas area, under the control of the pro-Russian separatist forces, and extend their domination along the entire southern coast of Ukraine.

The Russian occupation forces have allied Ukrainian militias in the area and were spokesmen for the pro-Russian administration of Donetsk, one of the two "people's republics" recognized by Putin on the eve of February 24, who blamed the Ukrainian Army for violating the ceasefire.

The fighting in eastern Ukraine contains the ingredients for an internal conflict in Donbas, where about a third of the population is pro-Russian, and constitutes an element of instability for Ukraine that Putin has always been interested in maintaining.

The unpunished murder of the population and the failure of humanitarian corridors question the very laws of war and demand extreme pressure from the international community to stop barbarism.

The executive director of Doctors Without Borders, Christine Jamet, has denounced the unleashed violence experienced by the non-existent Mariupol humanitarian corridor and has recalled that "safe passage and access for humanitarian aid must be a right, not a privilege".

Even war must respect its own rules.