International humanitarian law and the war in Ukraine – Russian aggression and the legal-political possibilities of punishing the perpetrators

Abstract

International humanitarian law of armed conflicts (known as humanitarian law) is a set of rules that seek to limit the effects of armed conflict. It protects persons who are not or are no longer participating in the hostilities and restricts the means and methods of warfare. International humanitarian law is part of public international law and therefore regulates relations between states in times of peace and war. The aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine in February 2022, preceded by hybrid military operations in Crimea and the eastern regions of Ukraine since 2014, demonstrated – once again in the history of international law – that prosecuting and bringing perpetrators of war crimes before an international criminal court is not easy from the point of view of either law or politics, specifically their correlations with international relations. States are strongly dependent on each other, but the prospect of returning to the pre-war situation, with the desire to maintain the status quo at all costs, trouble-free economic exchange and, finally, the resumption of economic investments are all somehow in contradiction with the humanitarian obligation to stop the hostilities, and arrest and persecute the aggressor. It is no different in the case of the war in Ukraine, where achieving international justice seems to be a legal and political mirage.