The difference from those imaginary situations Gareth gave is that the actual demand for an end to the war and a withdrawal of Russian forces is a demand for something that ought to happen.

It's a cruel and unjust war in which terrible things are being done. And the people who are fighting against it includes people who are ready to do cruel and unjust things as well, and the hostage taking was as cruel and unjust as can be. But that doesn't mean that what they were asking wasn't something that ought to be done.

"Not poison" when it has so far killed 116 people? Just because in certain circumstances it is believed that it (whatever "it" was) might not be lethal? Arsenic is quite good for you in small doses, I believe. But if 116 peope died after you administered it to them, I doubt if that would be seen as grounds for saying it wasn't a case of poisoning.

Well, perhaps in the circumstances it seemed the least worst thing to do. Perhaps it was bungled. But refusing to give the doctors the information about the gas that they needed, that wasn't bungling or the least worst thing to do. It seems more like cold-blooded murder.

Here's that link to Human Rights Watch I gave earlier. It's on noone's side. Or everyones's.