Moreover, ‘four suspected separatists’ were captured and ‘10 rebel checkpoints seized.’ M. For instance, on rebel forces shot down two Ukrainian army helicopters during an 'anti-terror' operation, which resulted in the death of two members of the Ukrainian army. The operation triggered intense fighting. ‘Ukraine Says Donetsk “Anti-Terror Operation” Under Way’, BBC, 16 April 2014 ‘Ukraine Crisis: President Vows to Fight Pro-Russia Forces’, BBC, 14 April 2014. After the lapse of an ultimatum requesting them to disarm, on 14 April 2014 the then acting President Turchynov announced the deployment of the army as part of an 'anti-terrorist operation' in order to regain control of the seized areas. For further information, see 'non-international armed conflict - intensity of violence' in our classification section.įrom 6 April 2014 onwards, armed men started seizing government buildings in a number of towns and cities in Eastern Ukraine. Various indicative factors are used to assess whether a given situation has met the required intensity threshold, such as the number, duration, and intensity of individual confrontations the types of weapons and military equipment used the number of persons and types of forces participating in the fighting the number of casualties the extent of material destruction the number of civilians fleeing and the involvement of the United Nations Security Council. For further information, see 'non-international armed conflict' in our classification section.Ģ014 – 2022: Non-international armed conflicts Government forces are presumed to satisfy the criteria of organization.

Second, in every non-international armed conflict, at least one side to the conflict must be a non-state armed group which must exhibit a certain level of organization in order to qualify as a party to the non-international armed conflict. Two criteria need to be assessed in order to answer the question whether a situation of armed violence amounts to a non-international armed conflict.įirst, the level of armed violence must reach a certain degree of intensity that goes beyond internal disturbances and tensions. In the aftermath of the occupation of Crimea by Russia, protests in the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces in Donbass, a region in eastern Ukraine, turned into non-international armed conflicts in spring 2014, until Spring 2022.

Ukraine civil war 2020