One of Ukraine’s winning principles

A big reason for the rules of war is to prevent a country that’s losing a conflict from unleashing a last-resort wave of attacks on innocent civilians. After its 4 1/2-year war in Ukraine, Russia appears to fit that description, adding one more justification for the 1949 Geneva Conventions – to which Moscow is legally bound.Civilian casualties in Ukraine were up 37% in the first half of 2026 from the same period last year. And, increasingly, the slaughter is in major cities, away from the most contested territory. “I ... see the nature of this war changing,” said Alexander De Croo, administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, during a visit to the country last month. “Civilian infrastructure is being attacked deliberately and relentlessly, day and night,” he said. “Buses. Trains. Bookshops. Supermarkets. The ordinary places where ordinary people live their lives.”In addition, Russia’s gloves-off tactics appear to come from orders on high. On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Financial Times that intercepted communications from Kremlin officials reveal that President Vladimir Putin instructed his military leaders in September to abandon any attempts to follow the rules of war. With Russia failing to capture new territory, said the Ukrainian leader, it is pursuing “massive attack[s], massive killing.” One source of Ukraine’s winning strategy is that it enjoys material support from dozens of countries – in part because it generally follows the Geneva Conventions. “Ukraine’s position is absolutely clear: our armed forces only target military objectives that contribute to Russia’s war effort, never civilians,” Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Andriy Melnyk told the U.N. Security Council in August.If Ukraine ultimately wins this war, one reason will be its consistency in honoring the innocence of Russian civilians during the conflict. As one Ukrainian soldier told the news site Geneva Solutions: “We want to present ourselves as defenders of international law and as the opposite of what Russia represents.”Or as Mikheil Dudaev, a unit commander, added: “To fight a monster, we must learn not to become one.” Deepen your worldviewwith Monitor Highlights.Politics with respectGet political stories with respectful analysis.There‘s a world of new ideas in everyBooks newsletter.There‘s more to life, enrich yours withCulture & Learning weekly.Follow humanity‘s discoveries withScience & Nature stories in your inbox.Gain a spiritual perspectivefrom the stories in your inbox.Want to understand the deeper impact of critical events? Learn the Monitor‘s insight.Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads. The Geneva Conventions “show what is possible when states come together and unite around the belief that a human life is a human life – no matter what side of the frontline they live on,” Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told a U.N. event last month.Those international rules also show, she added, “[how] many innocent lives that can be saved and the suffering [that] can be prevented.” ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER? LoginReal news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.The Christian Science Monitor was founded in 1908 to lift the standard of journalism and uplift humanity. We aim to “speak the truth in love.” Our goal is not to tell you what to think, but to give you the essential knowledge and understanding to come to your own intelligent conclusions. Join us in this mission by subscribing.