Western leaders say Russia's attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure are illegal, but what does the law say?
In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said after strikes on cities in November that 10 million people had been left without electricity and that half of the country's power capacity had been knocked out. Six million were still without power by Thursday night, he added.
"Demoralising people, terrorising people, is not considered to be an acceptable military advantage," Dr Varaki explains. In fact, she says, the opposite is true: "Terrorising the civilian population is considered to be a war crime." An attacking force may hope that destroying the civilian power grid will lower the morale of the enemy, but that is not enough to justify the attack under international law. There must also be a concrete military advantage before the attack is deemed legal.
As a former US Air Force targeting officer, Prof Schmitt also doubts that Russia is fully validating every object it attacks - another requirement of IHL.
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