The international human rights organization Amnesty International released a report accusing the Ukrainian army of endangering civilians. In response, the Ukrainians accused the human rights activists of equating the criminal and the victim.
Amnesty International said in its report that after examining the situation in Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, the organization concluded that “the Ukrainian military, while trying to repel the Russian invasion, endangers civilians by placing bases and using weapons in residential areas, in particular schools and hospitals. Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard accused the Ukrainian army of “violating the laws of war and international humanitarian law.” “The Ukrainian government should immediately ensure that its forces are stationed as far away from populated areas as possible or should evacuate civilians from areas where the military is operating,” she said.
Despite the fact that at the end of the report Amnesty International noted that “the practice of the Ukrainian military regarding the deployment of military facilities in populated areas in no way justifies Russia’s indiscriminate attacks,” the organization’s research provoked a negative reaction in Ukrainian society. “Propaganda and disinformation” was called by the Office of the President; Zelensky himself called the report an attempt to amnesty the aggressor. The Ukrainian ministers of defense and foreign affairs also reacted to the report. The Ukrainian office of Amnesty International made a separate statement about its own noninvolvement in the report and absence of war crimes on the part of the Ukrainian army.
Most commentators, including human rights activists, media people, and representatives of organizations that record war crimes, note that with its report Amnesty International actually demands that the victim act according to the rules, while the aggressor has repeatedly violated all norms and conventions and systematically commits war crimes on the territory of Ukraine.