New Technologies in International Law / Tymofeyeva, Crhák et al.

violations of international law by Russian citizens in cyberspace in the context of armed conflict, and they have not been tried for it. This is mainly the case of attacks in cyberspace during the armed conflicts in Georgia (2008) and Ukraine (2015-2016) described above. It also appears impossible to initiate investigations before the ICC. First of all, Russia has not ratified the ICC Statute. Moreover, as a permanent member of the UNSC, it can veto the procedure set out in Article 13 of the ICC Statute. Conclusion The progressive development of technology makes it possible to conduct armed conflict at a distance, even several thousand kilometers from the actual battlefield, all by using a computer. Conducting combat in cyberspace has pros and cons. On the one hand, it makes it possible to limit losses among combatants. Still, on the other hand, it makes it possible to remain fully anonymous, or at least to remain anonymous for a very long time. This creates a certain sense of impunity, making it relatively easy for soldiers or civilians who commit cyberattacks to cross the boundary drawn by IHL and commit war crimes. Unfortunately, the world powers, leading the way in developing military capabilities in cyberspace, may not be interested in prosecuting war criminals from cyberspace, just as they did not do so with war criminals from Iraq or Afghanistan (USA, UK) or do not have appropriate regulations in their legal system to allow such prosecutions (China). This would leave war criminals unprosecuted.

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