The concept of what a war crime is in this context isn't subjective conjecture, but a strict set of definitions laid out by multiple treaties between UN member nations over the last 100+ years (Yes, I know the UN hasn't been around that long, many treaties were grandfathered in). At its core, it's a gentlemen's agreement that amounts to "I won't do X to your guys if you don't do it to mine". When the UN calls something a war crime, they're not stating an opinion, they're citing a specific violation of one of these agreements.
This page contains the full report plus a lot of other information pertaining to the 2014 conflict. The Guardian article linked here doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the evil shit that went down during this.
[–] Wmb102er 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
OK, so it isn't really a moral issue, but just a matter of treaties? That actually makes a lot more sense. The combination of gentlemen's agreement and war still seems odd to me though.
[–] Krael ago
Wars are fairly short-term things compared to the damage they can inflict on populations and the land itself.
Would you really want to risk having huge swaths of your land rendered unusable/uninhabitable for the next 200 years, as a result of a war that'll likely last less than 5?