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Yesterday, Russian Ministry of Defense officially declared an unlimited naval war, threatening

to sink all civilian ships heading for Ukraine.

It was declared that from June 20, all ships that sail the Black Sea to Ukrainian ports

"shall be regarded as potential carriers of military cargo.

The flag countries of such vessels will be considered to be involved in the Ukrainian

conflict on the side of Ukraine," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Thus, the Kremlin has announced that it will destroy all such civilian vessels.

In addition, Russia announced that "a number of sea areas in the northwestern and southeastern

parts of the international waters of the Black Sea have been declared temporarily dangerous

for navigation."

In fact, we are talking about the fact that Russia has declared an unlimited naval war,

as the Third Reich did when it started sinking all the ships that were on their way to Great

Britain.

How it ended for him is also known.

In connection with this event, I propose to talk about one interesting topic.

Are Russian landing ships carrying civilians a legitimate target for destruction by the

Ukrainian side ? I look forward to your opinion in the comments.

After another damage to the Crimean bridge as a result of the attack, Russia again faced

a significant deterioration in logistics.

And in this situation, Russian may well organize a crossing of the Kerch Strait with the help

of large landing ships.

Moreover, already on July 11, due to huge traffic jams and queues at the Crimean bridge,

the Russian Navy's Dock landing ships began to perform this role.

And in this context, the question arises whether such large landing ships are a legitimate

target for destruction, even if Russia claims to use them only to transport civilians and

vehicles.

And although it is rather strange to talk about international law in the context of

a war with Russian, it should be noted that an enemy warship is a legitimate military

target in any case.

All the enemy warships available in the Black Sea belong to the Russian Navy.

Also these ships are armed with artillery systems, anti-aircraft artillery and MLRS

and are designed to fulfill military tasks and combat missions.

In case the Kremlin plans to use warships for any humanitarian tasks, such a ship should

be appropriately marked, its use should be warned in advance with indication of the route

and data of the ship, and it should have armament exclusively for self-defense.

Obviously, nothing of the sort has been done with regard to Russian ships in the Black

Sea.

A hospital ship loses any immunity in the event of a breach.

For example, the Soviet submarine S-13, commanded by Marinesko, sank the German transport Wilhelm

Gustloff in 1945, which was carrying some 9,000 refugees.

It was recognized as a legitimate military target, even though it was a ten-deck passenger

cruise ship.

That is, despite the fact that the transport was used to evacuate civilians, it performed

operations in a war zone, transported not only civilians but also about a thousand German

servicemen, was a floating base for German submarines and went under the protection of

a warship.

After all, if they really plan to evacuate civilians from temporarily occupied Crimea,

they can use the hospital ship "Yenisei" for this purpose.

Moreover, no one is preventing them from leaving the peninsula on foot.

In all other cases - any large landing ship of Russian is an absolutely legitimate target

for destruction.

Do you agree with me ?