Kiev assures its priority is to protect civilians after international organization warns it is “violating the law of war” by locating “military targets” in residential areas
Amnesty International (AI) on Thursday accused the Ukrainian armed forces of “violating the laws of war” by “establishing bases and using weapon systems in populated areas”, which “endangers the population”. The organization reminds the Zelensky government, after thorough on-the-spot investigations in Donbas, Kharkov and Mykolaiv, that international humanitarian law “requires all parties to a conflict to avoid as much as possible the location of military targets in densely populated areas or in their regions. close proximity.
This is the first time that a recognized international institution, and not suspected of alliances with Russia, has questioned some of Ukraine’s military practices so sternly and with testimony. In any case, Amnesty International emphasizes that its conclusions do not hide or excuse Russia’s atrocities, although “a defensive position does not exempt the Ukrainian military from respecting international law,” AI Secretary General Agnès Callamard said yesterday.
The report is also not exactly lax with the Kremlin troops, to whom it attributes war crimes, and criticizes their indiscriminate bombing, use of cluster projectiles and other missiles that cause destruction in “large areas”. “The Ukrainian army’s practice of locating military targets in populated areas in no way justifies indiscriminate Russian attacks. All parties to a conflict must at all times distinguish between military targets and civilian objects and take all possible precautions, including in the choice of weapons, to minimize damage to civilians. Arbitrary attacks that kill or injure civilians or damage civilian objects are war crimes.” In addition to causing controversy, his criticism of Kiev reveals an urgent request to the government “to immediately ensure that it moves its troops out of populated areas or the civilian population is evacuated from areas where the military is active.”
The response from the Ukrainian government was not long in coming. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is “outraged” by the civil organization’s demonstrations, while presidential adviser Mijailo Podoliak has said that “preserving the life and health of all citizens” is his “absolute priority” country. It added that the Kiev government “abides strictly by all laws of war” and believes Amnesty International’s conclusions are aimed at discrediting its armed forces and making it difficult to send weapons from the West, especially to a critical moment when Volodymyr Zelensky ordered the US to supply him with HIMARS missile launchers to counter the Russian forces and try to retake the occupied territories.
Podoliak has stressed that the cabinet is “constantly taking steps to help Ukrainians move from hostilities to safer areas” and cited as an example the order issued by the president last Saturday evening to evacuate civilians from Donbas, which Zelensky issued. apparently the day after Amnesty International forwarded its report to Ukraine’s defense ministry, the government chief justified the evacuation because “the more people leave the region, the less time the Russian military will have to kill people.”
The observers’ fieldwork was conducted between April and July. A team toured vast devastated areas, interviewing survivors, conducting ballistic surveys and tracking satellites. He also reported the presence of Ukrainian soldiers stationed in schools and armored vehicles parked under the bushes of residential streets.
The team confirmed the atrocities committed by the Russian invaders. And he explains that he also found evidence that the Ukrainians carried out attacks from “populated areas” and “civilian buildings” in 19 locations, “exposing the areas to retaliatory fire from Russian troops.” The soldiers were also billeted in five hospitals and several empty schools.
“In 22 of the 29 schools it visited, the investigation team found soldiers using the facilities or indications of current or past military activities, including the presence of military clothing, discarded ammunition, army ration packs and military vehicles.” “Russian forces attacked many of the schools used by Ukrainian troops. In at least three cities, Ukrainian soldiers moved to other nearby schools after the Russian bombing of schools, putting surrounding neighborhoods at risk of similar attacks.
The team stresses that these positions were miles from the front and that the Kiev military could have used other “viable alternatives” and “away from residential areas” to fire their batteries; including military bases and forests. It also denounces that the units surveyed had not previously warned or evacuated their neighbors and therefore “did not take all possible precautions to protect the population”.
In some of these cases, Ukrainian soldiers were the main victims. “In Bakhmut, they were using a university building as a base when a Russian attack hit it on May 21, reportedly killing seven soldiers. The university is adjacent to a high-rise residential building that was damaged in the attack, along with other civilian residences some 50 meters away. The research team found the remains of a military vehicle in the courtyard of the bombed-out university building. One of the testimonies collected by the observers is that of a woman who lost her son when the invaders tracked down and destroyed a Ukrainian position in an adjacent house. Mykola, a survivor living in Lisichansk, said: “I don’t understand why our army is firing from the cities and not from the countryside.”
Source: La Verdad
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