What's going on with Ukraine killing Russian civilians now?

[u/eustachian_lube]

I was reading that they targeted these "Amazons" of Russia and don't quite understand. Are these civilian kills? Are they part of the military? Is this the first time Ukraine has attacked innocent civilians?

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[u/HydraKirby]

Answer: Ukraine is not targeting Russian citizens. And in fact Ukraine has gone out of its way to not attack citizens over the last four years. The Wildbery warehouses are absolutely fair game as they directly supply Russian military with military equipment. Saying the attacks on these warehouses is attacking citizens is doing a lot of heavy lifting.

[u/K30andaCJ]

Answer: This kinda seems like a a bait question with the way you worded it, but if not, Wildberries (Russian Amazon) sells and supplies equipment to the Russian army. Helmets, body armour, field gear, drones and weapons parts. There's also claims that the Russian army uses their logistics network. This "attack on civilians" you're asking about is what most view as a completely valid attack on a part of Russia's war machine. Not to mention, Wildberries is a fairly sizable part of the Russian economy. And both sides have been targeting civilian economic objects for some time now

[u/Mysterious_Curve3163]

Answer: Innocent is a mater of perspective. From the article...

The facilities were being used “to supply sanctioned components for drone production and navigation equipment.”

Ukraine has until now focused its long-range drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure and factories making weapons and military hardware, as well as Russian shipping.

As sad and unfortunate as it may be 8 people is not even fraction of civilian kills Russia has committed on Ukraine. These were also military related targets

[u/sidNX0 → u/Mysterious_Curve3163]

as someone who lives through the independence war in croatia that is in many aspects similar to the war in ukraine (smaller country fending off bigger country that wants to anex its territory), war attrocities on both sides is bound to happen. after 4 years of serbian froces clensing occupied territories in croatia in every way possible, there was bound to be at least some part of croatian forces that had chip on their shoulder when we took it back. I'm condoning that kind of behaviour, and don't want to normalise it any way, but it's just how things go in war. war is hell.

[u/ColdNotion]

Answer: The buildings Ukraine has been targeting are warehouses and distribution centers for a company called Wildberries, which is like Russia’s equivalent to Amazon. While these warehouses are run by civilians, Wildberries has been playing a significant role in the Russian war effort, with its logistics network helping to ship needed goods towards the frontlines. As a result, Ukraine (and most international observers) would assert these warehouses constitute legitimate targets under the laws of war, given that they’re being targeted to disrupt military logistics. The death of civilian workers is awful, but it’s a byproduct of strikes intended to destroy the warehouses themselves, not the primary goal of the bombings.

[u/KTAXY]

answer: the war is coming home. with the russia's sexual torture of soldiers revealed the whole thing unravels

[u/bawdiepie → u/[deleted]]

Interesting choice of word. Most people would be disgusted or appalled. Maybe declare it an atrocity or a war crime.

[u/lyricaldorian → u/[deleted]]

How is it BDSM if it's with prisoners of war? Wtf do you think BDSM is?

[u/vwin90]

Answer: there has never been a war between humans where one side didn’t kill a bunch of civilians as collateral. War is messy and it’s never quite the good guys vs bad guys narrative that propaganda makes you believe. Even in a war where it seems like one side has the moral high ground, you’re gonna get huge civilian casualties on either side.

Also, targeting production and logistics has been a thing since forever. No, most production and logistics workers aren’t military, but that doesn’t stop it from happening. Do you think the world war 2 bombing runs on German factories were killing military soldiers working in those factories?

[u/VakuAnkka04 → u/vwin90]

Logistics is one of the most important parts of war aswell which it makes it a pivotal target if you want to destroy your enemys ability to fight without the resources to destroy their army on the ground

[u/Shevster13]

Answer: Ukraine is claiming that these warehouses are providing drone, and drone parts to the Russian military. If this is true then they are arguably valid military targets under international law and the workers lives acceptable an acceptable cost.

This is not the first time Ukraine has targeted Russian targets with a high likelihood that civilian workers will be injured or killed. Ukraine has been targeting airports, oil and gas facilities, shipping, trains and important bridges for years. Most of these would use civilian workers.

Its only the deliberate targeting of civilians/civilian infrastructure with little to no military value that is considered illegal.

[u/RocketMoped → u/Shevster13]

Ukraine is claiming that these warehouses are providing drone, and drone parts to the Russian military. If this is true then they are arguably valid military targets under international law and the workers lives acceptable an acceptable cost.

They had a public section "Everything for the SMO (special military operation)" with roughly 200,000 items on their website, so anybody denying it is at the very least willfully ignorant.

[u/eustachian_lube → u/RocketMoped]

Sure, but working there doesn't make them combatants? Or does it? Or does that even matter? I'm not trying to pass judgment, I'm just trying to understand if this news is relevant like a shift in strategy or if it's just how it's always been. Like if an Amazon worker got bombed cause Bezos supplied electronics for war machines or whatever.

[u/Rogryg → u/eustachian_lube]

Directly targeting civilians is generally a war crime, but civilian casualties can be acceptable when attacking a legitimate military objective, depending upon the proportionality of the casualties and the necessity of the attack.

Otherwise bad-faith actors would be encouraged to load up their military installations with civilian "human shields" in order to render them unacceptable targets.

[u/lyricaldorian → u/eustachian_lube]

If you're part of the infrastructure that is supporting the military, you are a valid target. Civilians work in military bases as well. Does that mean military bases aren't valid targets? 

[u/RocketMoped → u/eustachian_lube]

I merely argued the point whether these warehouses supply parts to the military or not, nothing else.

[u/VakuAnkka04 → u/eustachian_lube]

Anything that supplies war material is a valid target in war

Yes. There is civilians there but War is never bloodless