Lost in a Moral Wasteland During the Fog of War.

Questions worthy for the wisdom of King Solomon.

The Fog of War is a real phenomenon. So many moving pieces that create scenarios for which there is no clear answer or solution presented. People have choices to make without the benefit of time to fully assess the question, or faced with limited options.

As defined by the Oxford Reference:

‘A phrase now much used to describe the complexity of military conflicts (The Fog of War was the title of Errol Morris's 2004 award-winning documentary about Robert S. McNamara, US Secretary of State during the Vietnam War). Fog of war is often attributed to Clausewitz, but is in fact a paraphrase of what he said: ‘War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty.’(Emphasis in bold added)

This unfolding circumstance in Ukraine for a resident of the recently liberated city of Kherson displays how complicated scenarios and decisions become during the Fog of War.

On March 2 of this past year, Russian forces overran Kherson, Ukraine and gained total control over this city of 280K residents. However, they did not implement a full-scale system on how to administer the city in the ensuing chaos. Police forces were disarmed and disbanded. This led to the organization of local groups of men who patrolled the city to prevent looting and unchecked criminal activity. This was not coordinated with the Russian forces, but they knew of the patrols and gave permission for them. Two weeks into the occupation, a civilian patrol encounters a situation for which they do not have a clear-cut answer. From the New York Times, article:[Pay-walled]  

‘On the night of March 15, Illia Karamalikov received an unexpected phone call…On the phone that night, one of Mr. Karamalikov’s watch leaders reported that a team of guards had encountered someone stumbling toward a checkpoint in a strange green uniform, slathered in mud, looking shell-shocked. He wasn’t a looter. He was a lost Russian pilot, and they had disarmed him and were keeping him in a school classroom. It was a highly unusual prisoner of war situation — a band of civilians capturing an enemy officer in a city that the enemy controls. “Nobody knew what to do,” said Mr. Karamalikov’s lawyer, Mykhailo Velychko. “They couldn’t hand him over to Ukrainian forces — there were no Ukrainian forces in the city at that time. Moreover, there was no Red Cross. And the Russians were everywhere.”

Mr. Karamalikov faced a moral quandary in that he had an enemy combatant in custody-in a city entirely controlled by said combatant’s forces. He has limited options on what to do with the Russian pilot. The pilot was found 10 miles from his airbase that had been struck in an airstrike by the Ukrainian military. Let us stop right there and take a moment to ponder what our choice would be in this situation. Remember, no Ukrainian ground forces are within the area to hand over the pilot to be a prisoner of war. An entire city is under the control of the Russian Army. At this time, a good comparison of Kherson could be Vichy France in World War II. The article continues:

 ‘Mr. Karamalikov brought the captured pilot back to his house and locked him in a utility room. Later that night he arranged to return the soldier to the Russians. He saw no other option.

The Ukrainian authorities saw things differently. They later arrested Mr. Karamalikov as a collaborator and charged him with treason. He is awaiting trial and faces life in prison.

In the areas of Ukraine that Russia has seized — more than a fifth of the country — millions of civilians have had to coexist with an occupying army that wields all the power. The Ukrainians have recently clawed back chunks of their territory, like Kherson, which was liberated in mid-November, and almost immediately, the hunt was on for collaborators. People are now being judged by the choices they made during very stressful occupied times.’

‘As head of the neighborhood patrols, his supporters said, he had to make a decision that would carry grave consequences for him and his community. Handing the soldier back to the Russians seemed to go against the basic principles of war. If he had told his people to keep the soldier in captivity, in a city controlled by Russian troops, it could have put everyone involved in danger.’

The rest of the article is well worth a full read if one has the time and ability. If not, a good summation would be that it highlights other scenarios experienced by Kherson residents who are now facing accusations and criminal charges for collaboration. The crime of collaboration may sound like a clear-cut charge against those who aided the enemy during an extended occupation of the area. However, applying the charge of treason for every individual who may have worked with the occupiers begins to get hazy when presented with a variety of scenarios. It is important to note that the city of Kherson can be compared to many of the United States major metropolitan cities.

This Washington Post article compares Durham, North Carolina to Kherson in respect to population and city size. With a population hovering around 300K, a multitude of services continue to require attention. Sanitation, garbage management, and water treatment plants are not automated. Is it treason for a water engineer to work with Russian personnel in the water treatment plant to ensure a clean and safe water supply? Alternatively, would a widespread outbreak of Cholera be the better option if they did not? The transportation department keeping the roads and traffic lights working. The power plant that provides power to the cities hospitals and grocery stores. Should the city employees all refuse to work and flee? Remember, Kherson is a port town that was caught in the opening days of the conflict that was left to fend for themselves without clear directives from the main Ukrainian government. A Rabbi allowed some Jewish Russian officers to attend synagogue services. He now faces calls for treason charges against him by some of the city’s residents.

In conclusion, Mr. Karamalikov made the only rational choice by handing over the pilot to the Russians. Three options were presented: keep the pilot locked up for an undetermined amount of time, risking him being discovered by occupation forces, thus putting at risk not only him but also numerous citizens for retaliation. He could simply executed the pilot in cold blood, acting as judge, jury and executioner. Instead, he made the logical, moral decision to give the pilot to Russian forces, which now puts himself in jeopardy of being sentenced to life in prison for treason.

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Please leave a comment on what you think an occupied populace should or should not have done during this time.