12 Apr 2022

Rules of war - what are they good for?

From Midday Report, 12:45 pm on 12 April 2022

In Ukraine, authorities say 120,000 children have been forcibly taken to Russia since the invasion began.

Two-thirds of all Ukrainian children have been forced from their homes.

President Volodomyr Zelensky says tens-of-thousands of civilians have been killed in Mariupol.

Many humanitarian corridors are still impassible 

Mariupol's city administration says 33,000 residents had been deported to Russia or territories held by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Russia says it's "evacuated" 723,000 people from Ukraine since the start of what it called its "special operation."

A former legal adviser to the International Committee of the Red Cross, and now a law faculty member at Te Herenga Waka, Victoria University of Wellington, Dr Marnie Lloydd, told Māni Dunlop those reports are of grave concern, and show a lack of respect for the rules of warfare.