President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday condemned Amnesty International for accusing the Ukrainian army of endangering civilians by establishing bases in residential areas, slamming the human rights organisation for its bias and failure to report Russian strikes on civilian areas.
Zelensky said the report “unfortunately tries to amnesty the terrorist state and shift the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim.” The president noted that Amnesty’s report was surprising, considering Russian forces shelled the Toretsk region in Donetsk on the same day, killing eight civilians, including three children, and damaging civilian infrastructure.
Since Russia began its war against Ukraine we have been exposing violations of human rights & intl humanitarian law. From the devastation of Izium to the siege of Mariupol, shelling in Kyiv to displaced people in Lviv, Russia’s war is an act of aggression.https://t.co/1dnjnk0qyE
— Amnesty International (@amnesty) August 4, 2022
“There cannot be, even hypothetically, any condition under which any Russian attack on Ukraine becomes justified,” Zelensky asserted, adding, “Aggression against our state is unprovoked, invasive and openly terroristic.”
Furthermore, he blamed the organisation for “artificially creating an informational context” by equating Russia’s aggression and Ukraine’s defence. “If someone makes a report in which the victim and the aggressor are allegedly the same in something, if some data about the victim is analysed and what the aggressor was doing at that time is ignored, this cannot be tolerated,” he argued.
When I worked at Amnesty we took time on detailed reports putting events in context. Amnesty’s release on Ukraine today does not. The result suggests Ukraine bears more responsibility for people killed by Russian strikes than Russia itself. It is both bizarre and misleading.
— Maxim Tucker (@MaxRTucker) August 4, 2022
The Amnesty report said the tactics employed by Ukrainian forces “put civilians in harm’s way” and “violate international humanitarian law,” as they turn civilian objects into military targets.
“We have documented a pattern of Ukrainian forces putting civilians at risk and violating the laws of war when they operate in populated areas,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary-general. “Being in a defensive position does not exempt the Ukrainian military from respecting international humanitarian law,” she remarked.
Taking to Twitter, Callamard called on the Ukrainian government to relocate “its forces away from populated areas, or evacuate civilians from where the military is operating.” She emphasised, however, that “such tactics though do not in any way justify Russian war crimes.”
Wow, pretty damning statement from @amnesty Ukraine team—who say their concerns about the controversial report were ignored and that they were effectively sidelined from the process. https://t.co/jGSmXRSKO0
— Dan Peleschuk (@dpeleschuk) August 4, 2022
The report claims that the Ukrainian military has intentionally put civilian lives at risk by setting up bases in hospitals, schools, and other civilian areas. The group collected testimony from several Ukrainian civilians who have urged the army to stop using residential areas for attacks against Russia. “We have no say in what the military does, but we pay the price,” one of them told Amnesty.
“International humanitarian law requires all parties to a conflict to avoid locating, to the maximum extent feasible, military objectives within or near densely populated areas,” the report emphasised. In this respect, it called on Ukrainian authorities to “immediately ensure that it locates its forces away from populated areas.” “Militaries should never use hospitals to engage in warfare, and should only use schools or civilian homes as a last resort when there are no viable alternatives,” it went on to say.
#pt: About half of the speech tonight by #Ukraine's President Zelensky was about @Amnesty International, says it is contributing to #Russia's disinformation campaign with its "manipulative reports" and shares in the "responsibility for the death of [Ukrainian] people". pic.twitter.com/GwmN6f7b6k
— Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) August 5, 2022
However, Zelensky called the report “manipulative” and accused Amnesty of not reporting on Russian strikes. He noted that since Russia’s invasion began on February 24, Russian strikes have targeted almost 200 religious buildings, 900 medical facilities, and 2,200 educational institutions. “And there are no reports about it for some reason. This is immoral selectivity,” he remarked.
“If you provide manipulative reports, then you share the responsibility for the death of people with them,” Zelensky opined.
In the report, Amnesty also condemned Russian forces for carrying out strikes using indiscriminate weapons like cluster bombs. “The Ukrainian military’s practice of locating military objectives within populated areas does not in any way justify indiscriminate Russian attacks,” the report stressed.