Another conscription drive to the Ukrainian Army has passed with a strong slip. According to NTV, 11 thousand people are considered deserters in the Lviv region alone. Kiev had to admit that 8000 security forces went over to the militia side. And that's just according to the Ukrainian data. There are suggestions that the figure is deliberately understated. All these military recruits are threatened by prosecutors with criminal cases, but it does not stop people. There are a lot of reasons why guys do not want to serve, including moral ones. In February 2014 Vadim Yatsulyak served as chief of the engineering service of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine, and after the war in Donbass he was appointed as a commander of the Army Corps of Engineers of the National Guard. The first indication that he received, contrary to international law, was the authorities ordering the installation of anti-personnel mines.
"We see already, in fact, a kind of fermentation, which predicts negative consequences in terms of a unified Ukraine, because people are actually separated. Even assuming that the armed conflict, I will not name it ATO or war, because it is not actually legally ATO, not war, then it is an armed conflict. Even if today this armed conflict were to be stopped, the moral component, as the mothers who have lost children, in particular, take my subject, on anti-personnel mines, what will be their attitude to everything that is going on? Perhaps then the answer is obvious. "
He noted that the use of anti-personnel mines is prohibited not only the International Convention: "In Article 15 of the Law of Ukraine on terrorism said that during the anti-terrorist operation soldier has the right to use weapons and special equipment. Anti-personnel mines are arms, not weapons. There are no legal grounds for the use of anti-personnel mines. "
"Even in times of war it is permitted only partial use of anti-personnel mines. But back to the source. ATO is a special operation to neutralize criminals. No military action to seize objects, defeating the enemy should not be ", the former Ukrainian military said.
Vadim Yatsulyak considers unclear status of belligerent - combatant or non-combatant. (Combatant - fr. Fighting - a person who takes a direct part in hostilities in the armed forces of one of the parties in an international armed conflict and as such has a special legal status, - Ed.). "A combatant is a person who has a right to bear arms and to apply it. These are people who live in Donbas, consider the internal conflict, they get the status of participants in a war. These social benefits, payments and other things like that, so to speak, that are internal financial expenditure. This lack of international financial inflows, and even internal conflict accumulates. To declare, say, a war combatant by the Donetsk and Lugansk republic. That is blasphemy on their part over the edge of hypocrisy and cynicism, in fact. Not declaring a war to wage war in an inhumane manner, with a large number of killed civilians. In the Donbass, as you know, Tochka-U ballistic missiles are being used. Not militia have fired them, " the former head of the National Guard under the engineering service said.
