The NGO Amnesty International issued a report on Thursday (4) in which it says that Ukrainian troops have adopted a pattern that puts civilians in danger by establishing military bases and operating equipment in populated residential areas.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary general, said in a statement that the practice violated international humanitarian law by turning civilians into military targets amid the war against Russia. “Being in a defensive position does not exempt Ukrainian soldiers from respecting international law,” the Frenchwoman said.
The assessment is the result of an analysis that researchers from the NGO carried out in loco during the months of April and July in the regions of Kharkiv, Mikolaiv and Donbass, the Russian-speaking east of Ukraine where most of the attacks are currently concentrated. Conversations were held with survivors of the attacks, witnesses and the victims’ families.
According to the report, even schools and hospitals have been used as potential bases for Kiev’s troops. The NGO says hospitals were used for this purpose in at least five locations. “Using them for military purposes is yet another clear violation of international law.”
In response, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleva said he was outraged by the accusations, which he described as unfair.
Mikhailo Podoliak, adviser to the Ukrainian Presidency, accused Amnesty of participating in a Russian disinformation and propaganda campaign. “Moscow tries to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the eyes of Western societies and thereby stop the supply of weapons using its network of influence,” he wrote on Twitter.
“The authorities must immediately position their forces away from populated areas or evacuate civilians from where the military is operating,” said Agnès Callamard. “These tactics, however, in no way justify Russia’s war crimes,” he stressed.
Amnesty has been monitoring Moscow’s actions since the beginning of the conflict, and says it has documented and investigated various war crimes by Vladimir Putin’s troops. The NGO, however, has also previously criticized the practices of Volodymyr Zelensky’s government.
Back in March, for example, the organization claimed that Kiev violated the rights of prisoners of war, provided for in the Geneva Conventions, by making them participate in press conferences to say that they were sorry and that they had been forced to fight in the conflict.
The Ukrainian war has already left at least 5,327 civilians dead and another 7,257 wounded, according to figures updated by the UN human rights office as of the end of July. At least 352 dead would be children — the numbers are admittedly underreported.
The conflict has also led to a massive wave of refugees. Recent UN figures have given the size of the impact on the country’s demographics: the conflict will reduce Ukraine’s population by about 7 million by next year, largely due to forced emigration. From 43.5 million in July 2021, the number of inhabitants will rise to 36.7 million in the same period in 2023.
