Russia and Ukraine flashpoint

[Zkuq]

SecondWar said:

Zkuq said:

I don't think it's permissible by any international laws because they're still civilian targets, stolen or not. My stance is that violating those laws is not something to be done lightly. I have some understanding for damaging the economy of an attacker, but I have much less understanding for discomforting the populace in hope of causing a regime change or something. But like I said, I don't think it would be a good move, even if it was legal. There's plenty of examples of the resolve not weakening or even it strengthening when suffering is caused to the populace.

Not necessarily. If they're used to evade sanctions or transport military equipment this dual usage would make them legitimate targets, provided efforts were taken to minimise any collateral civilian casualties.

This is why targeting Russia's civilian oil tankers isn't a war crimes.

I doubt civilian airliners can carry enough cargo to make it worthwhile in any meaninful quantities. Rail is what it's all about, and in Russia even more so. There might be a stronger argument against airports, but I can't imagine even that being a very strong argument, because Russia probably has a lot of military airports as well. The argument against civilian airports might hold up well enough in practice, but personally I wouldn't bet on it.

I also doubt that sanctions that were put in place by individual countries rather than the United Nations really count for much in terms of international law, and I don't remember reading about UN sanctions against Russia, probably because of the Security Council. Personally I'm not necessarily opposed to attacking anything used to evade even these probably non-UN sanctions, but civilian casualties are probably still something to keep in mind.

I imagine oil tankers are capable of carrying enough cargo to make them technically be able to carry military equipment as well, so that's probably a much stronger argument (at least in theory - benefit of doubt etc.). Regarding sanctions, it's probably not legal either. I reckon Russia isn't transporting military equipment in any major quantities by sea, but I could definitely be wrong about that. I believe the attacks against oil tankers are at least 95% about money, possible even 100%. I'm cautiously in favour of the attacks, but only because I believe it's much more justified than Russia's attack on Ukraine, and a major part of that is that expected civilian casualties from that are probably quite low. I have concerns about any potential consequences of this in the long term, however.

Last edited by Zkuq - on 21 August 2026