Russia and the Responsibility to Protect: from a bifurcating understanding to the unlawfulness of the ‘special military operation’ against Ukraine

The Responsibility to Protect doctrine has been invoked by the Russian Federation in order to justify its ‘special military operation’ against Ukraine. As a matter of fact, if certain criteria are met, the Responsibility to Protect allows the use of force for humanitarian purposes in a third State in a manner consistent with the international legal framework. This paper aims at analysing Russia’s contradictory approach related to this doctrine as well as the illegality of its forcible intervention under international law, included within the R2P framework.