Signs of a combatant. Comparative analysis in the context of international and domestic armed conflicts
Authors: Kolotukha І. 
Published: February 2023

The issue related to the specifics of determining the characteristic features of a combatant during an armed conflict is under consideration. The provisions of international conventions and national legislation of Ukraine, which regulate relations during an armed conflict between warring parties and determine the status of participants in an armed conflict, are analyzed. Considerable attention is paid by the author to the analysis of such international legal acts as Geneva Convention III of 1949. "On the Protection of Prisoners of War" and Additional Protocol I of 1977. In particular, the important provisions of the Geneva Convention are the indication that, in addition to the provisions that are carried out in peacetime, this Convention applies in all cases of declared war or any other armed conflict that may arise between two or more High Contracting Parties, even if the state of war not recognized as one of them. The Convention also applies in all cases of partial or total occupation of the territory of the High Contracting Party, even if no armed resistance is offered to this occupation.
Norms of Additional Protocol I of 1977 are no less relevant at present.
Key in the analysis of the mentioned document is the provision that in cases not provided for by this Protocol or other international agreements, civilians and combatants remain under the protection and effect of the principles of international law arising from established customs, from the principles of humanity and from the requirements of public conscience. This Protocol, supplementing the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949 for the Protection of War Victims, applies in the situations specified in Article 2, common to these Conventions. The situations mentioned in the previous paragraph include armed conflicts in which peoples are fighting against colonial rule , foreign occupation and racist regimes to exercise their right to self-determination enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and in the Declaration on Principles of International Law Relating to Friendly Relations and Cooperation between States in accordance with the Charter of the Organization
United Nations.
The author tries to identify the characteristic features that indicate the combatants belong to the legal participants in both the international armed conflict and to identify the members of the resistance movement who may belong to the legal combatants and qualitatively distinguish them from mercenaries and other illegal participants in the armed conflict.
Entering the new, third millennium, humanity could not get rid of old problems, which are reminded of themselves every time with the appearance of another armed conflict. Unfortunately, Ukraine was not an exception, on whose territory the armed aggression of the Russian Federation has been ongoing since 2014. The result of the aggression was a full-scale invasion of the territory of Ukraine by Russian troops on February 24, 2022. In essence, an international armed conflict of varying intensity has been taking place on the territory of Ukraine since 2014, which has turned into full-scale hostilities across the country since February 24, 2022.
Modern international relations are characterized by a change in the nature of the conflict, the emergence of a number of new categories and situations, an increase in the number of victims among the civilian population, and the increasing internationalization of armed conflicts of a non-international nature. In this regard, the issue of identification of combatants during an armed conflict is extremely relevant.
The author did not ignore the national legislation of Ukraine on the issue of identification of servicemen of the regular armed forces. Thus, the provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On the Defense of Ukraine" and the Regulation on special purpose units (squads) of the National Guard of Ukraine dated July 9, 2014, No. 651, were subjected to a thorough analysis.
This article actually confirms the relevance of the application of international humanitarian law in national legislation and points to significant gaps that cannot be filled without the help of international law as a whole.
With his work, the author tries to draw the attention of domestic legislators to the problems of implementing international humanitarian law into the national law of Ukraine, and to single out the most important directions in this area.