ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the use of military artificial intelligence (AI) in unlawful attacks in the ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine and challenges to hold individuals and States accountable for those crimes. The analysis focuses on the more limited context of Russia’s 2022–2023 aerial campaign to destroy Ukrainian energy infrastructure. First, the chapter reviews the facts known about these attacks and the technology operating one of the primary weapons used by the Russian armed forces to carry them out – the Iranian-made Shahed drone. Next, it explains the basic principles of international humanitarian law (IHL), in particular the rules of targeting, which are particularly relevant to the use of military AI. The remainder of the chapter examines how Russia’s operation of the Shahed weapon system in the context of repeated targeting of Ukraine energy installations likely constitutes war crimes and the possibilities of holding persons and States (e.g. Russia and Iran) accountable for these offenses. It concludes that Russia’s use of military AI technology that increases the accuracy of its long-running attacks illustrates the greater likelihood that breaches of IHL occurred, as well as Russia’s responsibility for those crimes.
