Amnesty accuses Ukraine forces of endangering civilians, angering Kyiv
- Amnesty report says Ukraine putting civilians in danger by setting up military bases in residential areas
- While the report was widely covered by Russian media loyal to the Kremlin, Kyiv slammed it
Ukrainian forces have exposed civilians to Russian attacks at times by basing themselves in schools, residential buildings and other places in populated areas, according to a new report from Amnesty International.
President Volodymyr Zelensky led fierce Ukrainian denunciations of Amnesty’s allegations, accusing the group of abetting what he called Russia’s unprovoked attacks on Ukraine. The human rights group, he said, was “trying to shift the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim”.
Journalists on several occasions in recent weeks saw attack sites in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, and communities in the eastern Donetsk region where Ukrainian fighters, their vehicles or other items such as ammunition were still present.
At two locations, the Associated Press was told a soldier or soldiers had been killed. At a third, emergency workers blocked media from filming victims of a Russian strike on a residential building, which was unusual; locals said military personnel had been staying there.
In a report released on Thursday, Amnesty International said its researchers between April and July “found evidence of Ukrainian forces launching strikes from within populated residential areas, as well as basing themselves in civilian buildings in 19 towns and villages” in three regions of the country.
Amnesty also said it found Ukrainian forces using hospitals as military bases in five places, which the human rights group called “a clear violation of international humanitarian law”. The report noted that international humanitarian law requires the parties to a conflict “to avoid locating, to the maximum extent feasible, military objectives within or near densely populated areas.”