Editor's note: Human Rights Watch researchers answer to the questions about the laws of war in eastern Ukraine: what's going on in eastern Ukraine, which armed groups are operating there, what are the basic principles of the laws of war, what targets are subject to military attack, what rights do people in custody have during an armed conflict etc.
1. What’s going on in eastern Ukraine:
In several cities in eastern Ukraine, following the February 21, 2014 ousting of President Viktor Yanukovich, violence sporadically raged between pro- and anti-Kiev crowds. By mid-March, in several cities, particularly Donetsk and Luhansk, armed groups, initially calling themselves “self-defense units,” seized and occupied administrative buildings. Their demands ranged from making Ukraine a federation, to separation of their regions from the rest of Ukraine, to joining Russia.
