ODESA, Ukraine — Amnesty International released a report last week insinuating that the Ukrainian military is committing war crimes by operating near civilian infrastructure. The report was widely condemned by human rights activists, journalists and international law experts for being misleading, inaccurate and sloppily argued. Speaking as someone who has spent over two months reporting from Ukraine, I found the report appalling.
Amnesty International’s central claim is that the Ukrainian army is breaking international humanitarian law by operating in populated areas and basing itself in civilian buildings, thereby turning civilian objects into military targets and causing civilian deaths. The report alleges that, between April and May, Amnesty International’s investigators found evidence of this behaviour in 19 towns and villages in the Donbas, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions.
No comments:
Post a Comment