The report prompted the resignation of Amnesty Ukraine’s head, Oksana Pokalchuk, who said she tried to prevent the organization from publishing the report as it appeared.
“Unless you live in a country occupied by invaders tearing it apart, you probably don’t understand what it’s like to condemn an ​​army of defenders,” Pokalchuk said in a statement on Facebook. “Such important reports, published at such a time and in such a context, cannot but contain information about the other side of the war, about the one who started this war,” he added. “The organization produced material that sounded like support for Russian narratives. Seeking to protect civilians, this research became a tool of Russian propaganda.” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also criticized the report, writing on Twitter that it “distorts reality, creates a false moral equivalence between the aggressor and the victim, and reinforces Russia’s disinformation efforts.” Following the backlash, Amnesty said in a statement to CNN on Sunday: “While we fully stand by our findings, we regret the pain caused and wish to clarify some critical points.” The watchdog reiterated that it had “documented how in all 19 towns and villages we visited, we found instances where Ukrainian forces were located right next to where civilians lived, potentially putting them at risk from incoming Russian fire.” “We made this assessment based on the rules of international humanitarian law (IHL), which require all parties to a conflict to avoid locating, to the maximum extent possible, military targets in or near populated areas. The laws of war exist partly to protect civilians, which is why Amnesty International is urging governments to comply with them,” the watchdog said. “This does not mean that Amnesty International holds Ukrainian forces responsible for violations committed by Russian forces, nor that the Ukrainian military is not taking adequate precautions elsewhere in the country,” it said. Experts not associated with Amnesty have found that the pattern of violent actions by Russian forces in Ukraine meets the definition of crimes against humanity. “We must be very clear: Nothing we have documented Ukrainian forces doing in any way justifies Russian violations,” Amnesty said. “Russia is solely responsible for the violations it has committed against Ukrainian civilians. Amnesty’s work over the past six months and our multiple updates and reports on Russia’s violations and war crimes reflect the scale and severity of their impact on civilians.” Amnesty said it contacted the Ukrainian government on July 29 detailing the findings. “In our letter, we included GPS coordinates and other sensitive information about the locations, including schools and hospitals, where we had documented that Ukrainian forces were among civilians. We did not release this information in our press release due to security risks. It would pose as to the Ukrainian forces as well as to the civilians we interviewed,” the guard said.
“Amnesty International is not attempting to give the Ukrainian military detailed instructions on how to operate — but we call on the relevant authorities to fully comply with their international humanitarian obligations,” Amnesty said. “Amnesty International’s priority will always be to ensure the protection of the lives and human rights of civilians during conflict.” In his comments on Thursday, Zelensky accused Amnesty of handing Moscow a propaganda victory. “Today we saw a completely different report from Amnesty International, which, unfortunately, tries to pardon the terrorist state and shift the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim,” Zelensky said. “This is such unethical selectivity,” he added. “Anyone who amnesties Russia and artificially creates such an informational framework where some terrorist attacks are supposed to be justified or supposed to be understandable cannot fail to understand that by doing so they are helping terrorists.” CNN’s Mohammed Tawfeeq, Tim Lister and Petro Zadorozhnny contributed reporting.