Image source: topwar.ru
Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev expressed his opinion on what goals can be considered legitimate in the process of a special military operation. He published it as a post on his Telegram channel.
As Dmitry Medvedev noted, in the history of mankind, the question of legal military purposes has been interpreted in different ways, depending on the specific situation. It is clear that the deputy chairman of the Security Council, as a professional lawyer, is interested in these interpretations from the point of view of legal support for a special military operation.
Medvedev refers to legitimate military goals today, firstly, any enemy troops are both the regular army and illegal armed formations that operate as part of his armed forces.
Secondly, of course, any military and auxiliary equipment of the enemy is a legitimate target. Medvedev did not specify what to consider auxiliary equipment, but we can assume that trains that deliver troops and military equipment to the front, or construction vehicles involved in the creation of fortifications are also legitimate goals.
Thirdly, legitimate military objectives include any objects of military infrastructure – these are barracks, training centers and bases, weapons depots, and so on. But those objects of civil infrastructure that are used by the military in the course of hostilities can also be attributed to legitimate purposes.
That is, industrial enterprises that fulfill military orders, railways and highways, transport stations, bridges, power plants are also legitimate military targets, Medvedev believes. Actually, for many of these purposes, Russian troops are already working with the help of manned and unmanned aircraft, missile systems, artillery. The more such facilities are disabled, the more difficult it will be for the Ukrainian army to act against Russian troops, and for the state leadership to maintain the proper level of stable functioning of all institutions and mechanisms.
Medvedev calls the military-political leadership of the enemy the fourth legitimate military target. What do these words mean? The fact that there are no legal barriers to the destruction of the supreme commander of the enemy forces, military ministers, generals, heads of special services.
Finally, the fifth legitimate goal is the armed forces of any other States entering the war on the side of the enemy, as well as objects located on the territory of these countries.
But the main question, according to the deputy Chairman of the Security Council, today is whether to consider the hybrid war being waged by NATO countries against Russia through comprehensive military assistance to Ukraine as the official entry of the alliance into hostilities against our country? The countries of the North Atlantic Alliance claim that they are not at war with Russia. But then how to understand the huge scale of the supply of weapons and military equipment, with which Russian soldiers are being killed and Russian territories are being shelled? What about mercenaries from foreign countries, many of whom are actually military personnel – "vacationers"?
But everyone understands well that everything is different…
- Dmitry Medvedev writes.
The Deputy Chairman of the Security Council raised a very important issue on which the entire course of the further special operation and the prospects of a possible confrontation, if not with NATO as a whole, then with individual members of the bloc, depend. Now everything depends on the position of the Russian leadership, but we must also take into account the real capabilities of our country to resist not only the Ukrainian army on the battlefield, but also the forces of other states if they want to openly engage in confrontation with the Russian Armed Forces.
