Russian military commanders, as well as people at the very top of the Russian government, will be held to account for any war crimes in Ukraine, Britain’s armed forces minister said on Thursday.
“Russian commanders need to remember that war crimes are not just committed by those at the very top of the Russian government,” James Heappey told Sky News.
“They are committed all the way down the chain of command by all who are involved and these atrocities are being watched.
“They’re being catalogued and people will be held to account,” he added.
He said “the despicable bombing of a maternity hospital in Ukraine” is a war crime committed by Russian troops.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strike in Mariupol was part of a “genocide” on his people.
Three people, including a child, were killed in the attack, according to the besieged city’s council.
A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by the combatants, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war.
Actions such as torture, hostage-taking, unnecessary destruction of civilian property, deception by perfidy, wartime sexual violence, pillaging, and conscription of children in the military constitute war crime.
Other acts considered to be war crime are committing genocide or ethnic cleansing, the granting of no quarter even when there is surrender, and flouting the legal distinctions of proportionality and military necessity.
The formal concept of war crimes emerged from the codification of the customary international law that applied to warfare between sovereign states, such as the Lieber Code (1863) of the Union Army in the American Civil War and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 for international war.
In the aftermath of the Second World War, the war-crime trials of the leaders of the Axis powers established the Nuremberg principles of law, such as the fact that international criminal law defines what is a war crime.
In 1949, the Geneva Conventions legally defined new war crimes and established that states could exercise universal jurisdiction over war criminals.
In the late 20th century and early 21st century, international courts extrapolated and defined additional categories of war crimes applicable to a civil war. (Reuters/NAN)
•PHOTO: Britain’s Minister of the Armed Forces James Heappey attends a memorial service at the Camp Bastion Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, Britain, Oct. 7, 2021. REUTERS/Phil Noble.
About the Author
I wanted to thank you for this excellent read!! I certainly enjoyed every bit of it.
I have got you bookmarked to look at new things you post…
I could not resist commenting. Perfectly written!
hello there and thank you for your info – I have certainly picked up something new from right here.
I did however expertise some technical issues using this site, since I experienced to reload the website many times previous to I could get it to load
correctly. I had been wondering if your hosting is OK?
Not that I’m complaining, but slow loading instances times will very frequently affect your placement in google and can damage your high quality score if advertising and marketing with
Adwords. Anyway I’m adding this RSS to my e-mail and could look out for a lot more of your respective intriguing content.
Make sure you update this again soon.
When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is
added I get several e-mails with the same comment.
Is there any way you can remove me from that service?
Thanks a lot!
I’m really enjoying the theme/design of your blog.
Do you ever run into any internet browser compatibility problems?
A few of my blog audience have complained about my blog not operating correctly
in Explorer but looks great in Safari. Do you have any solutions
to help fix this issue?
Woah! I’m really enjoying the template/theme of this blog.
It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s hard to get that “perfect balance” between superb usability and appearance.
I must say you’ve done a awesome job with this.
Additionally, the blog loads super quick for me on Opera.
Outstanding Blog!
Very descriptive post, I loved that bit. Will there be a part 2?
Having read this I believed it was rather informative. I appreciate you spending some time and energy to put this information together.
I once again find myself personally spending a lot of time
both reading and posting comments. But so what, it was still worthwhile!
Have you ever considered publishing an ebook or guest authoring on other sites?
I have a blog based upon on the same subjects you discuss and would really like to have you share some stories/information. I know my subscribers would
appreciate your work. If you are even remotely interested,
feel free to send me an e-mail.
Thank you for the auspicious writeup. It in fact was a amusement account it.
Look advanced to more added agreeable from you! By the way, how could we communicate?
It’s amazing designed for me to have a web page,
which is beneficial designed for my experience. thanks admin
You are so interesting! I do not believe I’ve read a single
thing like this before. So good to find another
person with unique thoughts on this topic.
Seriously.. thank you for starting this up. This web site is something that’s needed on the web, someone with a
little originality!
Yes! Finally something about a.
Greetings from Carolina! I’m bored to death at work so I decided
to browse your site on my iphone during lunch break. I love the knowledge you provide here and
can’t wait to take a look when I get home. I’m amazed at how quick your blog loaded on my mobile ..
I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyways, good site!