The director of Amnesty International’s Ukraine office resigned on Friday to protest a lengthy statement by the wider organization accusing Ukrainian soldiers of using war tactics that endanger civilians.
In what it called a “comprehensive press release,” the international human rights group said on Thursday that “Ukrainian armed forces have endangered civilians by building bases and using weapon systems in populated residential areas, including schools and hospitals.”
The news of the statement sparked an internal debate in Amnesty International and was met with widespread and near-universal condemnation in Ukraine, which defended itself against a Russian army that has much more firepower and has decimated urban areas and tortured and killed thousands of civilians.
The press release said the organization’s findings in no way justified the tactics of the Russian armed forces, and that Amnesty International had previously documented Russian war crimes, but that was not enough to satisfy the group’s critics, including its Ukrainian director. , Oksana Pokalchuk.
“If you don’t live in a country invaded by occupiers who are tearing it apart, you probably don’t understand what it’s like to condemn the defending army,” she wrote in a Facebook post announcing her resignation after seven years. with the organization. “And there are no words in any language that can explain it to someone who hasn’t felt this pain.”
She was also concerned that the statement, prepared at the group’s headquarters, would not be used and abused by the Kremlin, not by the Ukrainian branch. “Without wanting it, the organization created material that sounded like support for Russian stories,” Ms Pokalchuk said. “In order to protect civilians, this investigation instead became a tool of Russian propaganda.”
The statement underlined the problems caused by Ukrainian troops fighting in urban environments, one of the most destructive forms of warfare. In the five months since Russia invaded Ukraine, the country’s cities have become the focal point for both offensive and defensive operations.
War rule experts said there was no ban on using schools, hospitals, museums and other public places as military command posts or bases, as long as they were not used for their peacetime purposes.
The protest has not changed Amnesty International’s position.
“While we fully support our findings, we regret the pain caused,” a spokesman for Alexander Artemyev said in an email on Sunday. “Amnesty International’s priority in this and any conflict is to ensure that civilians are protected. Indeed, this was our sole aim in releasing this latest piece of research.”