According to Amnesty, Ukrainian forces in Kharkiv, Donbas and Mykolaiv have violated international law by operating from populated areas. “We have documented a pattern of Ukrainian forces endangering civilians and violating the laws of war when operating in populated areas,” wrote Agnes Callamard, its secretary general. Regardless, the only reason Ukrainian forces are in populated areas is to defend them from Russian invaders – who are murdering, torturing and capturing Ukrainian civilians. As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in response, Amnesty is trying to “shift the blame from the aggressor to the victim.” The Russian Embassy in the UK welcomed Amnesty’s “report” with delight, tweeting: “@Amnesty confirms that #Ukraine’s tactics violate international humanitarian law and put civilians at risk…exactly what the #Russia all season. #StopNaziUkraine” Just in case anyone was in any doubt as to where she stands, Ms Callamard responded to her dissembling of insults from the Ukrainian government by equating it with Russian invaders – and, for good measure, dismissing Ukrainian ministers as trolls. But it is not only the Ukrainian government that has condemned Amnesty’s distortion of reality. So does the Amnesty office in Ukraine. Oksana Pokalchuk, its head, has now resigned, saying Amnesty has become an “instrument of Russian propaganda”. When AI staff in Ukraine protested the draft report, they were ignored: “Our team’s arguments about the inadmissibility and incompleteness of this material were not taken into account. Representatives of the Ukrainian office did everything they could to prevent the publication of this material.” Like all good left-wing outfits, Amnesty has been obsessed with Israel for years. In 2012, Kristyan Benedict, then the charity’s campaigns director, tweeted a ‘joke’ about 3 Jewish MPs: ‘Louise Ellman, Robert Halfon and Luciana Burger walk into a bar…each ordering a round of B52… #Gaza “. How did Amnesty respond to one of its key staff posting something widely seen as anti-Semitic? Mr Benedict has been promoted and is now the ‘Crisis Manager’. In February, Amnesty published another report on Israel, claiming that it is an apartheid state. Typically, it was full of errors, both factual and legal. And who led the opposition in this? As in Ukraine, Amnesty staff itself. Amnesty Israel’s executive director Molly Malekar described Israel’s report as a “punch in the gut”, while its chief executive Yariv Mohar said he was “shocked and angry” to hear its findings. In other words, the central administration of a hard-left NGO produced propaganda that owes more to ideology than reality, only to be criticized by its own people on the ground – who understand reality. Amnesty is a worthless, morally bankrupt scam that aids terrorist states. The sooner it collapses under the weight of its own distortions, the better.