WAR CRIMESCan Russia Be Held Accountable for War Crimes in Ukraine?

By David J. Scheffer

U.S. President Joe Biden has called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal for the actions of Russian forces in Ukraine. Could Russian leaders be brought to justice under international law?

What War Crimes Are Being Committed in Ukraine?
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine constitutes the crime of aggression under international law. The primary charge against senior leaders of Nazi Germany at the Nuremberg trials and Japan at the Tokyo war crimes trials was “crimes against the peace,” meaning the initiation of a war of aggression. These trials resulted in the conviction of three dozen perpetrators for aggression. The 1945 United Nations Charter further embedded the illegality of aggressive war (as opposed to defensive war) in international law.

Because they fall under the overarching crime of aggression, all uses of armed force by Russia on Ukrainian territory can be viewed as illegal. Moreover, the Russian military continues to commit various atrocity crimes, a category which includes war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.

War crimes. The unprecedented media coverage of Russia’s invasion has recorded the commission of war crimes in real time. The Russian military has targeted civilian infrastructure including apartment buildings, hospitals, factories, stores, churches, schools, and cultural sites. Even where a military target exists, using disproportionate force while knowing that the strike will likely cause death or injury to civilians or damage to civilian structures is a war crime.

Siege tactics to starve civilians into surrender or to force them to flee as refugees, which now number nearly three million, represent clear war crimes, as would any use of cluster munitions or so-called vacuum bombs on civilian areas. The use of a tactical nuclear weapon, which Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have implied is a possibility, would constitute a war crime because of the collateral damage to civilian lives and property. The use of chemical and biological weapons against any target—civilian or military—would as well.