UK's ambassador comments on Amnesty International's report on war in Ukraine
British Ambassador Melinda Simmons commented on Amnesty International's report on the war in Ukraine, which caused a wave of indignation due to accusations against the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The ambassador published her statement on Twitter.
"The only things endangering Ukrainian civilians are Russian missiles and guns and marauding Russian troops. Full stop. If Russia stopped invading Ukraine, there would be no danger," Melinda Simmons stressed.
Reference
On August 4, the human rights organization Amnesty International released a report stating that the Ukrainian military endangers the civilian population by stationing itself on the territory of schools and hospitals.
As noted by Amnesty International, "Ukraine's tactics have violated international humanitarian law as they've turned civilian objects into military targets. The ensuing Russian strikes in populated areas have killed civilians and destroyed civilian infrastructure."
According to the human rights organization's report, "most residential areas where soldiers located themselves were miles away from front lines, and viable alternatives were available that would not have endangered civilians."
At the same time, human rights defenders emphasized that the Ukrainian military's practice of locating military objectives within populated areas does not in any way justify indiscriminate russian attacks.
The Ukrainian office of the organization then published a comment in which it explained that the Ukrainian team was not involved in the preparation of the report and, from the beginning, tried to convince colleagues of the inadmissibility and incompleteness of such info and ultimately refused to translate and distribute it, but their opinion was not listened to.
In response, the President's Office stated that the lives of Ukrainians were threatened only by the russian army. Amnesty International's statements are nothing more than participation in russia's discrediting campaign against Ukraine.
"Today, Moscow tries to discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the eyes of Western societies and disrupt weapons supply using the entire network of influence agents.
It is a shame that an organization like Amnesty is participating in this disinformation and propaganda campaign," said Adviser to Ukraine's Chief-of-Staff Podoliak.
Podoliak emphasized that Ukrainian defenders defend their people and families.
"People's lives are the priority for Ukraine; that is why we are evacuating residents of front-line cities," Podoliak concluded.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Kuleba, in turn, said that he was outraged by Amnesty International's statement and considered it unfair.
"This behavior of Amnesty International is not about finding and conveying the truth to the world. It is about creating a false balance between the criminal and the victim between a country that destroys thousands of civilians and entire cities and a government that desperately defends itself, saving its people and an entire continent from this influx.
Stop creating a false reality where everyone is a little guilty of something. Engage in reporting the truth about what russia is today," Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba emphasized.
The Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksii Reznikov, believes that Amnesty International's report indicates a "loss of adequacy" in the organization.
Read Rubryka's daily timeline of war: current news on Ukraine's defense against russia's aggression.
