jackk > Boggles my mind that you can call civilians killed as being “unintentionally” killed by “shelling or crossfire” as an excuse for war crimes. Civilians are not targets. Never.
This is not absolute. We are used to American army spending hours following terrorists to minimize civilian casualties. Still, when we needed to get IS out of Raqqa and Mosul, we bombed those places. We did not _target_ civilians but knew that the risk for them was high. (Risk of staying under IS was also high, of course). So, when Russians are bombing cities where there is an opposing army hitting mostly civilians, it is barbaric by our times standards, but may not necessarily be a war crime. Nuremberg/Belgorod tribunals after the war will answer for certain, of course.
What I am really flabbergasted about is this week’s precision bombing of power infrastructure. (they use precision bombing because their dumb artillery is too far to reach the targets). And Russian’s apparent gleeful reaction to that. How can you cheer people getting stuck in subways and walking out in the dark, This may not be the highest loss of life, but an indicator how low these people fell.