Comment by aguaviva

Ukraine has also been laying mines in Kursk, not only its own territory.

Which would make these deployments offensive, then (though the war itself is defense for them).

I would take "12 civilians" with a grain of salt

Yes of course, and indeed there can be fluctuations both ways as apparently a large number of people are still in IC, and may yet expire from the effects of their wounds after weeks or months of agony. By which time world attention will have shifted to the next atrocity.

You're not using "directly targeting" in the usual sense.

You are correct here, also. My phrasing was intended moralistically, in the sense of "They knew very well that the pagers would be noisily distributed, and that a large number of civilian deaths, likely including minors, would inevitably happen as a direct result of their actions.") In retrospect it was a poor choice of words.