PROSPECTS FOR QUALIFYING THE CRIME OF URBICIDE IN INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of urbicide as an aggressive criminal strategy that the Russian Federation resorts to in order to weaken Ukrainian statehood and the Ukrainian nation. Urbicide is a violent act aimed at the destruction of cities, urban lifestyle and urban environment. Urbicide aimed at achieving results desirable for the subject of aggression and destructive for its object, which creates grounds for classifying urbicide as a crime. The relevance of the article determined by the need to include the concept of urbicide in the legal lexicon and international humanitarian law. This will make it possible to punish subjects whose guilt in committing the crime of urbicide will be proven. The purpose of the article is to analyze the strategy of urbicide used by the Russian Federation in the war against Ukraine as a crime which should acquire the appropriate qualification in international humanitarian law. The article focuses on the prospects of qualifying urbicide as a war crime. A list of war crimes is given, the description of which corresponds to the description of the acts of urbicide committed by the Russian Federation in Ukraine during the full-scale invasion of 2022-2023. At the same time, it is shown that the destruction of the urban environment is carried out not only by military means, but in particular, through disorganization, criminalization, the destruction of the city's life support structures, informational and psychological operations, and these means achieve the greatest effect in a complex combination. Analysis of the actions of the Russian Federation in the destruction of Ukrainian cities shows that the crime of urbicide is an aspect or manifestation of the crime of genocide. Other manifestations of genocide, recorded during the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, testify in favor of this conclusion. The lot of researchers accept the interpretation of urbicide as an act of genocide. The Russian aggression in Ukraine added arguments to the supporters of this interpretation. In the context of the empire-colony relationship, the aim of urbicide is destroying the urban environment of former colonies. The optics of post-colonial theory allows a better understanding of the reasons and mechanisms of Russian urbicide in Ukraine. This direction of research is fruitful, in particular, for recording its results in international humanitarian law.