School, hospitals, shops: in a war, is it forbidden to bomb civilian buildings?

With its urban combats and its artillery duels, the war in Ukraine carries its procession of destruction.

Entire cities, such as Mariupol on the shores of the Sea of ​​Azov, or more recently Sieverodonetsk or Lisichansk, in the heart of Donbass, have been largely disfigured by the conflict.

Amid the hundreds or even thousands of buildings and homes affected, some destroyed civilian buildings have been the focus of political and media attention.

This was the case, among others, of the maternity ward or the Mariupol theatre, the Kramatorsk station and more recently a shopping center in Kremenchouk.

Each time, the reactions of the two belligerents are the same: in kyiv, Russian war crimes are mentioned;

in Moscow, the

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Conversely, to justify their "

", the Russians themselves have denounced since the beginning of the conflict the indiscriminate Ukrainian fire against the city of Donetsk, held by the separatists since 2014. The question of the destruction of civilian buildings reality arises in every war: the destruction of hospitals by the Russian air force in Syria made international headlines for years, while in 2003 the United States was criticized for deadly strikes in Iraq, against the Hilla hospital and the University of Baghdad in particular, and more broadly for the use of cluster bombs incapable of distinguishing between civilians and soldiers when they are used in an urban context.

What is a "military objective"?

But what does the law of armed conflict, also known as international humanitarian law, say about this?

What is permitted and prohibited?…

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