Applying the Three Part War Crime Test to this Trench Attack

This video was sent to me by a fan, who said it came up on the United 24 Telegram site. Note that United 24 is Ukrainian state-run media.

The question asked was “Is this a war crime? Trench battle where Ukrainian soldier 'finishes off ' wounded Russians They were obviously non combatants.”

So we have to apply the Three-Part War Crime Test.

#1. Are the soldiers hors-de-combat?

#2. Are the soldiers clearly marked medical personnel?

#3. Are the soldiers actively trying to surrender?

First let’s go over the video.

Two Ukrainian soldiers approach four Russian soldiers.

The Ukrainians throw a smoke grenade.

The Russians return fire.

At this point, it can be assumed that these Russian soldiers are combatants based on their posture and their willingness to return fire. The person who sent me the email may have been confused about what “non-combatants” means.

The defense continues. No attempt is made to surrender.

A grenade is thrown by the Ukrainian forces. The Russia forces take cover.

Russian Soldier #1 may not be wounded. Soldiers #2 and #3 may be wounded or at least concussed.

A Ukrainian soldier advances and kills the three defenders.

So now let’s apply the Three-Part War Crime Test.

#1. Are the soldiers hors-de-combat?

It is difficult or impossible to tell if the soldiers were hors-de-combat from a drone. Remember wounded soldiers can still be considered “in the fight.”

Now let’s try to estimate distance. If the average height of a man is 180 centimeters we can do some rough calculations and estimate that the Ukrainian soldier as roughly 10 meters (990cm) from the middle Russian soldier and roughly 6 meters from the center Russian soldier.

10 meters is roughly space between goal lines on an American football field.

By The original uploader was Xyzzy n at English Wikipedia.

It may be difficult to determine the extent of a soldier’s injuries at that distance.

Also note from the drone footage, it is impossible to determine if the Russian soldiers were ignoring commands to surrender, or if the Ukrainian soldier is even shouting them.

So this is inconclusive, but possible.

#2. Are the soldiers clearly marked medical personnel?

The Russian soldiers are not clearly marked as medical personnel, although it may be too far or the footage is too grainy to determine this from a drone.

The fact that the Russian soldiers are firing back at the Ukrainian does not necessarily mean that they are not medical personnel. Medical personnel are permitted to carry self-defense weapons.

That being said, it is unlikely that three medical personnel would be defending a trench as opposed to performing medical duties.

So this is unlikely but inconclusive.

#3. Are the soldiers actively trying to surrender?

At no point during the video did any Russian soldier posture themselves in a position which would indicate submission or surrender. It is impossible to determine whether they were tying to surrender verbally due to the lack of audio from the drone.

So this is unlikely but inconclusive.

This is what war looks like. It is messy and confusing and you are alive one minute and dead the next. But I don’t believe it was a war crime.