While Russia regularly denies targeting civilians, Western researchers note that in all its military operations, Moscow uses humanitarian corridors as a weapon of war.
The Ukrainian authorities have once again accused, this Wednesday, March 9, the Russian army of hindering attempts to evacuate civilians in several besieged cities in Ukraine. Moscow has pledged to respect local ceasefires around six humanitarian corridors. But Ukraine accuses Russia of holding several thousand people hostage by continuing the bombardments.
The Russian army has indeed often been the architect of often controversial evacuations, whether in Chechnya or during the Syrian conflict. In the city of Aleppo in December 2016, an agreement concluded by Russia provided for the establishment of humanitarian corridors which were to allow the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians. Evacuations supervised each time directly by Moscow, with checkpoints, searches and controls.
“Saving time to redeploy”
Now in Ukraine, the Russian army is also making military use of these humanitarian corridors. It does this by opening, or not, the doors according to Russian interests in the theater of operation, indicates Elie Tenenbaum, director of research at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri).
“ First, it saves time to redeploy, because it actually creates spaces outside of conflict on the front line. It also makes it possible to empty the besieged cities of part of their civilian population under the pretext of humanitarian issues. In fact, they will reduce much of what today creates friction and what can weigh politically on the image of Russian military operations in Ukraine. And so it helps to smooth the playing field by leaving only targets that could be considered military targets – even if that’s not the case – and therefore in a certain way legal under the law of armed conflict. Finally, it can be a psychological weapon by creating tensions between those who leave and those who stay. »
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Break the opponent’s morale
It is indeed a formidable weapon, with humanitarian corridors going directly to the enemy, or fake humanitarian convoys carrying real military reinforcements. When Moscow accepts talks with a humanitarian vocation, one must always be wary, underlines Dimitri Minic, specialist in the Russian army and researcher at Ifri-NEI.
The latter takes the example of the conflict in the Donbass in 2014: “ The Ukrainian army was about to defeat the pro-Russian separatists in Donbass. At the time, Russia announced on August 11, 2014 the dispatch of a humanitarian convoy of approximately 300 trucks. Russia had launched talks with the Ukrainian authorities to arrange the terms of this expedition. And then, by surprise and without authorization, the trucks of the humanitarian convoy crossed the Ukrainian border on August 22, 2014. Ukrainian soldiers reported that the pro-Russian separatist forces had received reinforcements from the Russian army two days after the entry of humanitarian trucks. It meant the first major defeat for the Ukrainian army… So there, we can clearly see how this announcement of a humanitarian convoy integrated the Russian system to support the separatists in the Donbass. »
What matters is to roll the Ukrainian authorities in the flour
Ruse and deception were thought up by Russian military theorists and to disorient the enemy, recalls Dimitri Minic: ” It’s part of what is called military deception, negotiation is used as a method of appeasement. Finally, cooperation is also conceptualized as a pillar of the information struggle and the struggle for Russian influence. As a Russian military theorist said: to break the enemy’s will, you have to strangle the enemy in a friendly embrace! What matters is to roll the Ukrainian authorities in the flour. To impose its rhythm, the rhythm of the offensive and then to disorient. These are methods that were thought up by Russian military theorists to disorient the enemy and control him. Have some form of mind control over him. »
This is called the tactical use of “painting”, a visibly effective lever in support of offensive actions.
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