According to Eric David, Emeritus Professor of Public International Law at Free University of Brussels, the attacks carried out by the Russian army on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine can be qualified as war crimes and crimes against humanity: “This is what is called in criminal law an ideal concurrence of offences. (when the same act constitutes several offences, editor’s note). On the one hand, as essential infrastructures have a dual use, that is to say that they can be used both for civilians and for the military, the qualifier of war crime is appropriate. But given the completely disproportionate nature of the damage caused to civilian populations compared to that caused to the Ukrainian army, then, at this point, it becomes a crime against humanity“.
In effect, the characterization of a crime against humanity seems appropriate because of the excessive collateral damage to civilian populations. Moreover, according to the emeritus professor, by massively attacking the country’s critical infrastructure and depriving the population of vital resources, Russia seeks to “to break“Ukrainian morale, which reveals the intentional nature of these attacks.