‘We behave like humans’: How Ukraine frames its fighting and the laws of war

KYIV — When Ukrainian soldier Vitaly entered Russia’s Kursk region as part of the recent incursion, the first thing that surprised him was that some locals spoke Ukrainian.
“Some of them said they have relatives in Ukraine who used to come here often for shopping until those up [high] decided to launch an invasion. They could even speak better Ukrainian than I do,” Vitaly told POLITICO by phone from the Kursk region.“Maybe that’s why I feel no desire for revenge for what their nation did to Ukraine.”
The idea that Russian civilians are safe in areas taken by Ukrainian troops is part of a broader narrative on the part of Kyiv as it seeks to differentiate itself from Russia’s often brutal occupation of Ukraine and also not lose the support of its Western allies.
“It is important for us not to be like those who brought war with looting and rape to us. I am very proud of our soldiers, that we don’t have anything like that,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in response to a question from POLITICO during a press conference in Kyiv last week.
“It also affects the attitude of the international community to the incursion. And you see the attitude toward this operation, although [partners] did not know it was going to happen. This is because we behave like humans,” Zelenskyy added.
Ukraine has been highlighting videos of Ukrainian troops interacting with Russian civilians and providing them with food and water.
Anything that clashes with that narrative is a risk. That means an errant Ukrainian missile that hits a Russian school, or a soldier who kills a Russian civilian could immediately be turned to Moscow’s advantage. Meanwhile, Russia faces no similar restraints as it has trampled over the laws of war in its invasion of Ukraine.
But with Ukrainian forces in control of hundreds of square kilometers of Russia for almost a month — something the Kremlin denounces as a “terrorist” operation — Russia has yet to make any firm accusations of violations of the laws of war by Ukraine.
“We need to do everything the Russian Federation did not do in the occupied territory,” said Andriy Yakovlev, a lawyer and expert on international humanitarian, criminal law and human rights with the Ukrainian NGO Media Initiative for Human Rights.
That stands in sharp contrast to Russia’s conduct.
Starting in 2014, when it annexed Crimea and fomented a rebellion in eastern Ukraine, Russia has been in violation of the U.N. Charter by attacking a sovereign country. Its full-scale invasion more than two years ago was also illegal — despite Russian President Vladimir Putin saying his “special military operation” was an act of self-defense.
Russia’s treatment of civilians has also broken the laws of war — spelled out in the four Geneva Conventions.
It ranges from indiscriminate attacks on civilian objects like apartment buildings, train stations and shopping centers to torture and massacres by Russian forces in areas of occupied cities like Bucha — something for which Ukraine wants Russia held to account by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The ICC has also issued an arrest warrant for Putin, saying he failed to stop the illegal deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.
“It would seem that Russia today is committing three essential types of crimes: a war of aggression, war crimes and genocide,” notes the United States Institute of Peace, an American NGO.
Ukrainians are keen to stress they are waging a very different war.
“It is crucial that Ukraine fights according to the rules, and that humanitarian needs in that area must be met,” Zelenskyy said last month.
That is a critical war aim, wrote retired Australian General Mick Ryan.
“This ‘fighting by the rules’ plays a big role in projecting legitimacy for the Ukrainian state and helps in gaining military, diplomatic, financial and moral support from other nations,” he posted. “But it also has a crucial impact on soldiers. When soldiers are well-led, and engage in ethical conduct in war (as brutal as that might be at times), it keeps them human in the most terrible of circumstances, and also protects their souls.”
That plays out on the front lines.
Soldier Vitaly is from Lyman, a city in the Donetsk region that was occupied by Russia in the early days of the invasion and then liberated in the fall of 2022. When he returned to his apartment, he saw it had been looted. “Russians were stealing everything they could reach,” Vitaly recalled.
Although he admitted that Ukrainian rule in the newly taken Russian territories is still chaotic, soldiers are not interested in looting.  
“Their stuff presents no value for us, it’s someone else’s. But we do let locals take some first necessities from the local stores when they ask. We just ask them to stay reasonable and take what they really need,” Vitaly said.  
The Ukrainian army in Kursk has been helping locals with food, bottled water and medicines, which soldiers like Vitaly usually bring from their trips to the Ukrainian city of Sumy. They are obliged to do so by international law.
Occupying forces “shall take all the measures in [their] power to restore, and ensure, as far as possible, public order and safety,” reads Article 43 of the Hague Regulations of 1907.
Ukraine has established its first military command office in Sudzha, but it remains unclear whether it can effectively perform governing functions in the regions beyond the city, where fighting is frequent and control can quickly shift.
 “It is difficult to verify the establishment of power and the ability to perform maintenance functions, because we do not have verified data, except for the city of Sudzha, where it is obvious that it is under the control of the Ukrainian army, proved by the visits of journalists,” said Yakovlev, the human rights lawyer.
Ukrainians are working to reestablish water supplies and already have doctors working in the controlled areas where several hundred Russians still live, Vadym Mysnyk, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s army command Siversk, which is responsible for the Kursk operation, told POLITICO.
“We’re still counting on how many people we have to take care of. Many of them were hiding from us in the first days, but as they saw the humane treatment, more of them started to come out and ask for aid. We have special squads helping them,” Mysnyk added.
Kyiv allowed international journalists into the areas it had conquered, published dozens of videos of Ukrainian soldiers treating locals humanely and asked organizations like the International Committee of the Red Cross(ICRC) to come and observe the situation.
“We are working with local authorities and partners to adjust our support as required, while continuing dialogue with the parties to ensure broader humanitarian access to people affected by hostilities and respect of international humanitarian law, including in relation to prisoners of war,” said Pat Griffiths, ICRC spokesperson in Ukraine. 
More than 130,000 residents evacuated from the Kursk region, while 20,000 have stayed on, said Alexei Smirnov, the Russian acting governor of the Kursk region.
Kyiv urged Moscow to officially apply for a humanitarian corridor to allow locals to flee, but the Kremlin so far has not responded, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk told POLITICO during a forum in Kyiv last week.
“For them, it would be humiliating to ask us for something, so it is easier just to abandon their people,” she said.
The danger of staying has become increasingly apparent as Russia begins to pummel Sudzha.
“Locals keep asking why their army bombs them like that,” Mysnyk said, adding that Ukrainians then show them photos of Ukrainian cities like Avdiivka, turned into a wasteland by Russian attacks, “explaining that this is the Kremlin’s main liberation tactic.”
Despite being part of an army that has conquered some of its enemy’s territory, Vitaly does not feel like an occupier.
“There is an absolute understanding that our stay there is a forced measure dictated by the Russian occupation of our lands. If Russia had not invaded, we would not have been there, although they speak Ukrainian there much better than some of us,” the soldier said.  
“We’re here only temporarily,” he said. “But as a Donetsk resident, I am happy that the war finally came to Russia.”