Amnesty International (AI) has apologized to Ukraine for its report that the Ukrainian Armed Forces endanger civilians by stationing their forces in residential areas. At the same time, the human rights organization did not refuse its conclusions.
“AI deeply regrets the suffering and anger that our report on the tactics of warfare by the Ukrainian military has caused. The priority of AI in this and every other conflict is to ensure the protection of civilians. This was our sole purpose in publishing this latest study. While we support the correctness of our findings, we regret the pain caused,” AI said in a response to Reuters.
The AI report, published on August 4, says that the tactics of the UAF violated international humanitarian law by turning civilian objects into military targets. Human rights activists claim that the Ukrainian military carried out strikes from residential areas in at least 19 settlements. According to them, in most of these cases, the Armed Forces of Ukraine had safe alternatives – military bases, dense forests or remote buildings.
Kyiv criticized the report of the organization. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba accused her of "creating a false balance between villain and victim." Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine , said that the words about violations by the Armed Forces of Ukraine "are in the nature of an information operation to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine and undermine the supply of weapons from Western partners."
“Everyone who amnesties Russia and creates such an informational context that some terrorist strikes are justified or understandable cannot but realize that this helps the terrorists,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said .
On August 6, Oksana Pokalchuk, director of AI's Ukrainian office, announced her resignation. She has worked for the organization for 7 years. “Everything crashed against the wall of bureaucracy and a deaf language barrier. The point is not in English, but in the fact that if you do not live in a country that the occupiers have broken into and are tearing it to pieces, you probably do not understand what is wrong with condemning the army of defenders. And there are no words in any language that can convey this to someone who has not felt this pain, ”Pokalchuk wrote.