Part II Situations of Armed Conflict in 2014, Situations of Armed Conflict in 2014, Military occupation of Ukraine by the Russian Federation in 2014

Subject(s):

Military assistance — Armed conflict, international — Armed conflict, non-international — Military objectives — Armed forces

This chapter describes the ongoing military occupation of Ukraine by the Russian Federation which started in February 2014. It provides key casualty data gathered by the Human Rights Watch and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Both countries are bound by conventional international humanitarian and human rights law, including customary international humanitarian law (IHL). Since February of 2014, protests were carried out in the Crimean capital Simferopol and the Federal City of Sevastopol as result of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's decision to reject a pending association agreement with the EU in favour of closer ties with Russia. This action proved to be critical in his removal from position. Concerned with the lives of the Russian speaking people, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the armed forces of the Russian Federation to ‘normalize’ the socio-political situation in Ukraine.