Amnesty International says Ukraine's military has been risking its civilians' lives

Amnesty International says Ukraine's military has been risking its civilians' lives

Senior Crisis Advisor of Amnesty International Donatella Rovera (center) released a report August 4, 2022 condemning the Ukrainian army for putting civilians at risk, a possible war crime.

Dogukan Keskinkilic/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

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Dogukan Keskinkilic/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Senior Crisis Advisor of Amnesty International Donatella Rovera (center) released a report August 4, 2022 condemning the Ukrainian army for putting civilians at risk, a possible war crime.

Dogukan Keskinkilic/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Amnesty International issued a report on Thursday accusing the Ukrainian military of stationing its troops and artillery near hospitals, schools and residential buildings in ways that may amount to war crimes. The international human rights organization says it spent two months in Ukraine interviewing locals and collecting physical evidence to compile the report.

“Viable alternatives were available that would not endanger civilians – such as military bases or densely wooded areas nearby, or other structures further away from residential areas,” reads the report.

Responding to questions about Amnesty’s findings, Ukraine’s deputy Defense Minister, Hanna Maliar, said that Ukraine “regularly conducts evacuations of civilians from conflict areas.” Thousands can’t or won’t flee some of the towns along the front.

But Amnesty International says that Ukrainian troops shelter alongside civilians far from active conflict zones, and that Russian rocket strikes on Ukrainian military positions have left several nearby civilians dead.

Donatella Rovera, the report’s author, says that situations like these arise on all sides of any war, and that it’s up to Ukrainians to address the concerns as soon as possible.

“I think the level of self-censorship on this issue has been pretty extraordinary,” said Rovera.

Like Amnesty International, NPR’s journalists also have witnessed some evidence of military presence near bombed civilian areas.

Ukrainian officials have claimed that their defensive posture against Russia justifies all tactics used so far, and that the report unfairly implicates Ukraine in war crimes. One top adviser to Ukraine’s president even accused the human rights group of being Russian propagandists fostering disinformation.

“Please stop creating a false reality where everybody is equally to blame [for the war]” said Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, in a video broadcast on television. He joined a chorus of others, including Amnesty International’s own Ukraine office, in saying that foreign observers should blame only Russia for any threats against civilians.

Amnesty International has produced dozens of reports about Russian war crimes. Rovera said she personally investigated when hundreds of tortured bodies turned up in suburban Kyiv after Russia retreated from the area.

“To say that issuing a four-page press release compares to hundreds of pages that we’ve published since the beginning of the Russian invasion … it’s just not true,” said Rovera.

The report notes that reports of Russia’s use of illegal weapons in civilian areas — including cluster munitions and anti-personnel landmines — should give Ukraine even more reason to keep its troops far away from civilians.

Amnesty International gave the Ukrainian Defense Ministry six days to respond to specific evidence about Ukrainian military presence in civilian areas. The rights group’s Ukraine office says that wasn’t enough time.

Rovera says that she understands Ukrainians are, in many ways, outgunned and outmatched, but that the credibility of Ukrainian’s moral high ground requires a total adherence to international law — even if it puts its military at a tactical disadvantage.

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