On June 6, Vladyslav Voloshyn, a spokesperson for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), said the command of Russia’s Dnepr grouping of troops had ordered the mass use of civilian vehicles to transport fuel along routes linking the Rostov Region with occupied Crimea. Now, the first evidence has emerged supporting Ukrainian military claims that Russian forces have begun using civilian vehicles to deliver fuel to and through the peninsula.
On June 8, Telegram channel Krymsky Veter (lit. “Crimean Wind”) published a photograph of a military Ural truck disguised as a civilian dump truck. Black military license plates are visible on the vehicle. The channel said the photo was sent by a subscriber, who also reported that the driver was wearing civilian clothes.
Ruslan Leviev, founder of the Conflict Intelligence Team research group, commented on the post, writing that “here Russian troops really are disguising military equipment as civilian, which is definitely a war crime. The photo shows a military Ural with black military plates, repainted and disguised as a civilian dump truck.”
Under international humanitarian law, parties to a conflict must clearly distinguish between military and civilian objects. Using civilian transport, or imitations of it, to conceal military activity may violate that principle and create additional risks for civilians.
Also on June 8, the Telegram channel Exilenova+ published a video showing the trunks of two passenger cars filled with gasoline canisters. The people in the recording say they are transporting about a ton of fuel from Kizilyurt, in Dagestan, to occupied Tokmak in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Region.
Leviev was one of the first to notice and draw attention to the post, noting that the case likely does not involve Russian troops disguising themselves as civilians, because the carriers in the video appear to be civilians.
“Maybe, strictly legally, there is no war crime here, because the people in the video do not appear to be soldiers; they really seem to be civilians, meaning they are not disguising themselves as civilians,” Leviev said. “But videos like this could provoke new drone strikes against any civilian passenger cars on roads in the south of the occupied territories.”
The Telegram channel Supernova+ also published a video that shows large fuel tanks in the back of a civilian truck at a filling station in the Krasnodar Region. The post also included several statements from locals complaining about the shortages.
According to AFU spokesperson Voloshyn, the development was the result of successful Ukrainian strikes on Russian military logistics. He said that Russian forces planned to use civilian trucks seized from transport companies, postal services, and other organizations to carry fuel. The vehicles include bread trucks, trucks used to transport food and medicine, and other vehicles that outwardly look no different from ordinary civilian transport.
Voloshyn said the vehicles would be loaded with canisters and containers ranging from 20 to 1,000 liters, and drivers would be banned from wearing military uniforms.
“That is, this is yet another violation of the rules of warfare,” Voloshyn added.
