Causes of civilian casualties in wars and armed conflicts of modern times. On
the basis of aforementioned, the following aspects might lead to civilian casualties.
1. Consequences of cognitive impacts on personality and society.
Cognitive impacts are made by defending party within informative, psychological
and cyber operation carried in order to introduce ideas, views and images to the psyche
of civilians that lower capability for adequate cognition of reality and, as a result, lead
to irrational actions. Everyday, people are forced to make impossible choice between
food, medicine, dwelling, heating, education for their children, etc. [32]. The
consequences of those cognitive influences of opponent for the population of the
Donbas area was also the fact that large percentage of the population on the
confrontation line did not want to leave their homes. According to the estimates of
international organizations, up to 600,000 people still live in close proximity to the
demarcation line [32].
Many of them, as a result of intensive information, psychological and cognitive
impacts made support irregular formation and join various illegal armed groups.
In 2014, the cases of impede movement of units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,
seizure of weaponry and military machines by civilians of the Donbas area. Herewith,
the actions of residents were directed and coordinated mostly through cyberspace
(social networks, blogging sources, etc.). By leading local population to the streets of
Ukrainian towns to counteract state forces, the rebels created basis for emergence of
loss of civilians. It should be noted that the practice of use of civilians as a living shield
is widely applied by irregular formation in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq.
2. Use of terror by illegal military formations.
Terrorist attacks are widely-spread form of various formations in Afghanistan,
Iraq. Thus, in 2016, the UN mission recorded a record number since 2009 of the
number of casualties due to terrorists attacks. In [33] states that Taliban and Afghan-
Pakistani branch of terrorist organization the “Islamic State” are responsible for the
killing and wounding 61% of civilians.
3. Military actions by means of non-selective nature (category under [11]).
As the report of monitoring mission OSCE states “… armed hostilities persisted
in eastern Ukraine in an unpredictable and fluctuating manner, endangering lives,
damaging property and threatening the environment. Heavy weapons, such as
explosive weapons with a wide impact area or the capacity to deliver multiple
munitions over a wide area, continued to be frequently employed, including in
residential areas and where critical civilian infrastructure is located, in disregard of
commitments under the Minsk agreements to withdraw such weapons from the contact
line. The situation has been exacerbated since the beginning of the conflict by the
presence of foreign fighters, and the supply of ammunition and heavy weaponry
reportedly from the Russian Federation”[34].
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