Amnesty International's representative in Ukraine resigns after a report criticized by Kyiv The head of Amnesty International in Ukraine Oksana Pokalchuk announced her resignation after a report by the non-governmental organization accused the Ukrainian armed forces of endangering civilians, angering Kyiv. "I announce my resignation from Amnesty International in Ukraine," Pokalchuk said in a statement on her Facebook page Friday night, considering that the report published on August 4 unintentionally served "Russian media propaganda." On Friday, Amnesty International confirmed that it bears full responsibility for its report, which accuses the Ukrainian army of endangering civilians in its resistance to the Russian invasion, by deploying military infrastructure in populated areas. The publication of the document the previous day angered Kyiv. President Volodymyr Zelensky went so far as to accuse the NGO of "trying to whitewash the terrorist state" by "somewhat equating the victim with the aggressor". "He who does not live in a country invaded by occupiers who divide it, may not understand the meaning of condemning an army of defenders," Pokalchuk said. She added that she had unsuccessfully tried to convince the Amnesty International management that the report was biased and did not take into account the views of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. Amnesty confirmed that it had contacted Ukrainian Defense Ministry officials on 29 July about its findings, but had not received a response in time before the release of its report. Kalchuk said Amnesty "has given too little time" for the Defense Department to "respond". "As a result, the organization inadvertently released a report that seemed to unwittingly support the Russian narrative," she said, adding that "out of the protection of civilians, this report has turned into a Russian propaganda tool." Kalchuk wrote in a Facebook post that Amnesty had ignored requests from her team not to publish the report. "Yesterday, I had a naive hope that everything could be fixed and the text replaced with another, but today I realized that wouldn't happen," she added. Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Callamard confirmed Friday that the report's conclusions are "based on evidence obtained during large-scale investigations that are subject to strict standards and a single investigative procedure in all of the work" of the NGO. In its report, after a four-month investigation, the organization accused the Ukrainian army of deploying military bases in schools and hospitals and launching attacks from populated areas, a tactic that constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law, as it put it. But the NGO stressed at the same time that the Ukrainian tactics "in no way justify the indiscriminate Russian attacks" affecting the civilian population. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he was "outraged" by Amnesty International's "unfair" accusations indicating a "wrong balance between the oppressor and the victim".

AFP