@Riverman
I repeat, if a foreign invader comes you are entitled to defend your home and family, even with lethal force, with or without a uniform on.
I posted the image of an Ukrainian fighter which wears private clothing which looks like a uniform, but isn't necessarily one, and presented it as legal. The main thing about him was that he wore an armlet, so he was recognisable. Remind you, not the uniform is key, because like I have written before, there might not be enough for the fighters to wear, on both sides, but that they are recognisable as combatants, by, e.g. special hats or armlets.
And he got them wrong because civilian self-defence against invasion is permitted under the laws of war.
Wearing an armband is enough.
That's exactly what I said! Nothing else. As soon as someone being recognisable as combatant and fights, he no longer is a civilian! That's key.
Traces here of the invading German Army in 1914 and the un-uniformed Belgian franc tireurs executed by the invaders because they opposed the Germans or the French and other Resistance groups, without uniforms, in WW2.
You have to differentiate, because to begin with, the British, Americans and Russians did execute a lot of Germans soldiers, they also tortured them, so don't come with German only. Even more, irregular fighters which wore no uniform and no other signal, or the uniform of hte enemy, were usually tortured and shot by the allies - as spies and terrorists. All sides did it.
But if looking at what would be a normal situation:
- the fighters need to recognisable. Like if they wore armlets and stayed in military units, they would irregular forces, like partisans.
- if they were not recognisable and switched regularly between civilan status and combatants, they are spies/terrorists, not protected by the law.
Fighters of the French Resistance wearing armlets:
https://miro.medium.com/max/640/0*63lX5Ac5pddVkXYK.jpg
Polish underground army, wearing armlets:
https://ipn.gov.pl/dokumenty/zalaczniki/2/2-35717_g.png
These were combatants, its enough to wear an armlet. Most Ukrainian fighters in civilian clothes wear such armlets (yellow or blue mostly) too.
If they moved around in civilian clothes, non-recognisable, and placed bombs or made assasinations, it was terrorism. The same applied to "Werwolf" German resistance fighters, if they did the same, or any false flag operating units, which being executed as spies and terrorists as well. The Soviets murdered many innocent Germans and youths which being only "suspected" to be Werwolf members, even if they were none or never became active:
In the
Soviet occupation zone, thousands of youths were arrested as "Werwolves".
[56][57] Evidently, arrests were arbitrary and in part based on denunciations.
[56] The arrested boys were either executed or interned in
NKVD special camps.
[56] On 22 June 1945, Deputy Commissar of the
NKVD Ivan Serov reported to the head of the NKVD
Lavrentiy Beria the arrest of "more than 600" alleged Werwolf members,
[58] mostly aged 15 to 17 years.
[59] The report, though referring to incidents where Soviet units came under fire from the woods,
[58] asserts that most of the arrested had not been involved in any action against the Soviets, which Serov explained with interrogation results allegedly showing that the boys had been "waiting" for the right moment and in the meantime focused on attracting new members.
[59] In October 1945, Beria reported to
Joseph Stalin the "liquidation" of 359 alleged Werwolf groups.
[56] Of those, 92 groups with 1,192 members were "liquidated" in
Saxony alone.
[56] On 5 August 1946,
Soviet minister for internal affairs
Sergei Nikiforovich Kruglov reported that in the Soviet occupation zone, 332 "terrorist diversion groups and underground organizations" had been disclosed and "liquidated".
[56] A total of about 10,000 youths were interned in NKVD special camps, half of whom did not return.
[57] Parents as well as the East German administration and political parties, installed by the Soviets, were denied any information on the whereabouts of the arrested youths.
[56] The
Red Army's torching of
Demmin, which
resulted in the suicide of hundreds of people, was blamed on alleged preceding Werwolf activities by the
East German regime.
[60]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werwolf
Therefore the measures against "resistance" were hard from all sides. But a crucial differentiation is how people attack: Are they recognisable as combatants and how are they switching between "civilian non-combatant status" and "military resistance with combatant status" - regardless of how they are being clothed.
But the incidence with the car with people in civilian clothing driving by and throwing a Molotov cocktail is clearly terrorism.
If the same would have happened to allies in Germany, or to Americans in Vietnam, Iraq or elsewhere, or to Israelis in Palestine etc., it would be called that way for sure. Imagine Iraqis doing that, throwing a Molotov cocktail at Americans while driving by.
Rules and law should apply to all the same way. Otherwise they are arbitrary, which is a big problem for the USA by now, and one important reason their "war against Russia" being not supported by the majority of the world. Because everybody knows what the Americans did and might do in the future. Its just hypocrisy.
@Riverman mister rules of war....
When will you face the fact that Putin is waging a war that stems from a totalitarian mind, where human lives don't count. That is very clear.
First of all, by focusing the war entirely on terror targeting civilians, by deploying 'forbidden' (mister rules!) weapons' such as cluster and vacuum bombs on civilian targets. And through targeted actions to isolate people, they starve, deprived of the essential necessities of life, torture and rape them. And some are deported. Destination: unknown. That's against any rule! It's all to break people, not armies. Because he will not break the army, that was clear in the first weeks. That is simply exercising terror against civilians and that violates all the rules of 'regular warfare'.
Secondly, also with regard to its own troops, the army was poorly or unprepared. And in fact, a Russian soldier's life doesn't count. dead Russian soldiers are left for dead. What that does to the moral of the soldiers is terrible. Your life is less worth than that of a dog..... Wagner Group is deployed now. Officially it doesn't even exist and mister rules they are allowed to break all the rules. They're just slayers.
And then we see Lavrov, foreign minister, with a straight face claiming that this is all fake news, set up by the West etc. Cruel cynic at its best. But no, according to Riverman, that's all imaginary. Putin and his Kremlin clique are very respectable. When will you open your eyes Riverman!.
I don't say the invasion was right or what the Russians do is all fine, I only point to unfair reporting and what the Ukrainians do to balance things out, because apparently, nobody else cares about the truth for both sides and how peace can be achieved. Diplomatically, the fault is almost entirely on Ukraine, but that doesn't justify all measures, obviously.
As for your claim, you repeat, and which is untrue: In Mariupol the target of the military operation are nationalist militias, largely from West Ukraine and mercenaries, operating in the thousands between the civilian structures and inhabitants of the city. This is the tragedy, that a couple of thousands of fighters make the Russian use such measures against the whole city, because there is no alternative. These fighters being equipped with state of the art sniper equipment, anti-tank and anti-aircraft arms, which leaves the only option of decimating them by artillery, without risking way more losses for the conquerors of the city.
It is a tragedy, but its not about targeting the civilians. These being just in between the two fighting parties, Ukrainian nationalist militias and Russian allies (mostly Donbas units and Chechens as far as I heard), which are, on the infantry level, worse equipped.
No doubt, the whole war is a preventable tragedy, and both sides contributed to the current situation, to this level of escalation.
We need peace and a diplomatic solution and therefore I repeat once more: Both sides to the negotiations table,
pressure on both sides for taking peace and diplomacy seriously. And not nationalist-imperalist agendas, which both sides (Putin regime and Selenski regime/Biden regime) clearly display.
