Human Rights Watch (HRW) says both Russia and Ukraine must avoid placing military bases in civilian areas during combat operations without relocating the residents first.
The New York-based rights group said in a report on July 21 that both sides in the war in Ukraine have put civilians at unnecessary risk by basing their forces in populated areas without removing civilians to safer areas despite international humanitarian law obligating parties to the conflict to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians.
HRW documented four cases of Russian forces establishing military bases in populated areas and three instances of the Ukrainian military taking similar action without moving civilians to safer areas. Subsequent attacks on these bases killed and wounded civilians, the watchdog said.
“As the war in Ukraine rages on, civilians have been caught in the fighting unnecessarily,” said HRW's Belkis Wille.
“Russian and Ukrainian forces both need to avoid basing their troops among civilians, and to do all they can to remove civilians from the vicinity,” Wille said.
HRW said it wrote to the Russian and the Ukrainian defense ministries on May 6, asking for details about the measures their armed forces were taking "to minimize civilian casualties, remove civilians from the vicinity of fighting, and avoid deploying forces in densely populated areas."
Neither side has responded, HRW said.
The group urged Russia and Ukraine to abide by the laws of war applicable during international armed conflict that can be found in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and customary international law.
According to international legislation, HRW noted, parties to the conflict must take the necessary precautions “to the maximum extent feasible" to protect civilians and civilian objects under their control from the dangers resulting from military operations, avoid locating military targets within or near densely populated areas, and seek to remove civilians and civilian objects under their control from the vicinity of military targets.