5 years ago, during the annexation of Crimea, the Russian Federation extensively used “human shields” to secure occupation soldiers from possible resistance. However, Russia has not yet been brought to justice for this war crime. For two years, Ukrainian human rights activists have been reviewing, decoding, and analyzing hundreds of hours of video taken by eyewitnesses in the Crimea, interviewing witnesses, and gathering evidence. Finally, this year, the information on the use of “human shields” by Russian troops in Crimea in 2014 was sent to the International Criminal Court.
The concept of “human shields” in international law
International humanitarian law prohibits the use of civilians for military purposes. The use of “human shields,” when warring sides use unarmed civilians as a living barrier between themselves and the enemy, is classified as a war crime. Importantly, international war crimes do not have an expiration date. A person who has committed a war crime can be prosecuted even after many years. Before the Crimean events of 2014, the tactics of “human shields” were used in a number of conflicts. Particularly, in the Yugoslavia war, also by ISIS soldiers who kept children with them while advancing, and even by some Israeli soldiers.
"No one within the limits of modern criminal tribunals has been held accountable for the use of ‘human shields.’ The lack of relevant international judicial practice makes it harder for us to work. But what we do together now will form the international judicial practice. We hope that next year we will already have the first results of our reports to the International Criminal Court in the form of an investigation into these crimes," Vitaliy Nabukhotny, lawyer of the Regional Center for Human Rights, told RFE/RL.
Russia's use of “human shields” in Crimea
Ukrainian soldiers had no command to protect themselves and shoot. The decision of the Ukrainian leadership of that time not to protect Crimea with guns is still highly disputable. Only 5,000 Ukrainian troops were capable of fighting at the moment in the whole of Ukraine. Some politicians, like Anatoliy Hrytsenko, former Minister of Defense and presidential candidate, say that part of these capable troops had to be sent to Crimea already when some 200 “green men” were seizing the Crimean parliament and government. Others think it was quite risky since no one else would have been there to stand at the border with Russia.
Seizure of Ukraine’s military base in Novoozerne.
Viktor Shmyganovskyi, the head of the naval Lyceum in Odesa, was an eyewitness of these events.
"’Green men’ came on 1 March to us in Novoozerne. They openly announced that they are the military of the Russian Federation and their goal is to help us protect military bases from radical Crimean Tatars. We answered that Crimean Tatars are serving with us and that we do not need any protection. On the next day, the soldiers arrived with civilians who began to incline us to break our oath. They acted very coherently. It was evident that they were acting not by themselves but on orders."A priest of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate also took part in the seizure of the naval base. He urged the Ukrainian military to humility and said that they "should not fight with their brothers." Children and elderly people were also involved. A similar scenario took place in other parts of the Crimea. In Novofedorivka, for example, dozens of civilians insulted the Ukrainian military and demanded "to clear out". In Sevastopol, civilians and "Cossacks," supported by Russia's military, aggressively seized the headquarters of the Ukrainian Navy.
