President Volodymyr Zelensky savaged
an Amnesty International report that accused his forces of endangering
civilians by deliberately setting up bases in residential areas.
During his nightly video
address to the Ukrainian people on Thursday, he accused Amnesty
International of seeking to “shift responsibility from the aggressor
to the victim.”
The president added:
“There cannot be, even hypothetically, any condition under which any
Russian attack on Ukraine becomes justified. Aggression against our state is
unprovoked, invasive and openly terroristic.”
“And 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 analyzed and what the aggressor was
doing at that time is ignored, this cannot be tolerated.”
The Amnesty report, titled
“Ukraine: Ukrainian fighting tactics endanger civilians,” was
released on Thursday. It accused the Ukrainian military of having “put
civilians in harm’s way,” while resisting the Russian invasion “by establishing
bases and operating weapons systems in populated residential areas.”
The report said these tactics
“violate international humanitarian law and endanger civilians” by
turning “civilian objects into military targets.”
Researchers found evidence
that Ukrainian forces had been “basing themselves in civilian
buildings” across 19 towns and villages.
Fighting in Ukraine has been
characterized by fierce urban combat, with Russian forces leveling large parts
of cities such as Mariupol and Severodonetsk before they were captured.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty
International’s secretary general, accused Ukrainian forces of “violating
the laws of war” in the report.
She commented: “We have
documented a pattern of Ukrainian forces putting civilians at risk and
violating the laws of war when they operate in populated areas.
“Being in a defensive
position does not exempt the Ukrainian military from respecting international
humanitarian law.”
In an extraordinary move, the
report was rejected by Ukrainian Amnesty International employees, who said they
had opposed publication.
In a statement they said:
“The Ukrainian office was not involved in the preparation or writing of
the text of the publication.
“Representatives of the
Ukrainian office did everything they could to prevent this material from being
made public. We are very sorry that even after all possible arguments ‘against’
we were still not heard.”
