The Wave of Russian Attacks on Ukraine’s Power Infrastructures: An Opportunity to Infuse Meaningfulness into the Notion of “Dual-use Objects”?

ABSTRACT: The wave of attacks launched by Russia against Ukraine’s power infrastructures since Oc- tober 2022 represents one of the most debated and peculiar aspects of the current international armed conflict between the two countries. Although these types of attacks cannot be labelled as unprecedented nor understudied given their frequent occurrence in situations of armed conflict, some of the legal issues that they raise remain to this day unresolved and deserve to be further analysed and discussed. After setting the scene and providing an overview of the most salient facts, the present Insight will reflect on the so-called “dual-use” status of these targets, starting with ques- tioning what this status entails and whether it is always correct to assume that the civilian function of dual-use objects does not figure into whether the object is a military objective for targeting pur- poses. After challenging this broadly permissive reading of art. 52(2) of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, this Insight will turn to the application of the principle of proportionality in case of attacks against dual-use objects, supporting the view that this remains, to this day, the most prom- ising - although not necessarily the only - option to accord greater protection to civilians from effects of attacks against facilities that are key to their survival.