Thread by @MattLightCrim

In the explosion on the Kerch Bridge, several cars and trucks burst into flames and their occupants were presumably killed. You'd have to be a monster to take pleasure in these deaths, but they do not constitute a war crime or create any other kind of culpability by Ukraine. 1/

It's worth noting that (1) the occupation of Crimea is illegal under international law and the bridge was built against Ukraine's wishes and to promote that occupation (2) it's undeniably being used to transport military personnel and equipment. 2/

Ukraine has the right to destroy the bridge in its lawful self-defence against Russian invasion, even if this entails some civilian deaths. True, all combatants must observe the principle of proportionality, that the harm to civilians must be proportionate to the military goal.3/

It would be hard to argue seriously that Ukraine violated that principle in this action. Russia has chosen to open the bridge to civilians, and is responsible for that decision. Ukr has no way to attack it without risking the deaths of some of those civilians. 4/

To say that Ukr can't attack the bridge if doing so might result in some civilian deaths is not a reasonable position in law, morality, or common sense. It's also only fair to note that those civilians knowingly entered a war zone against the wishes of its sovereign, Ukraine. 5/

Indeed, Ukr has been very sparing of Russian civilian lives during Russia's war of aggression. It seems likely that some civilians have been killed in Ukrainian raids on Russian military targets inside the Russian border, and in this instance, but the numbers must be quite low.6/

The contrast with Russia's wanton and deliberate killing of Ukrainian civilians is so obvious that I hardly need to belaour the point. 7/

There is an analogy with the debate over the sinking of the Lusitania in World War I, which centred on whether as Germany claimed this civilian liner was carrying munitions for the Entente war effort, which the British and Americans denied. 8/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_o…

One doesn't have to accept German's position that the presence of munitions would give it carte blanche to slaughter hundreds of civilian passengers, but the principle that some civilians may be killed in the course of attacking military targets is not really in dispute. 9/

One obvious difference between the Lusitania and this case is that Ukraine's action entailed only a handful of civilian deaths. We can and should regret the deaths of civilian passengers on the Kerch bridge, but those deaths are not on Zelensky's conscience, but on Putin's. 10/10