The Ukrainian military endangers the civilian population by establishing bases and deploying military equipment in residential areas, including schools and hospitals, while trying to repel the Russian invasion, a new report by Amnesty International says.
Ukraine’s tactics violate international humanitarian law, as they have turned civilian objects into military targets, experts note. They point out that the ensuing Russian strikes in populated areas have killed civilians and destroyed civilian infrastructure.
Amnesty International notes, however, that not every Russian attack documented by the organisation has followed this pattern. Russia committed war crimes in Kharkiv, where Amnesty International found no proof of Ukrainian positions in populated areas.
“In certain locations in which Amnesty concluded that Russia had committed war crimes — including in some areas of the city of Kharkiv — Amnesty did not find evidence of Ukrainian forces located in civilian areas unlawfully targeted by the Russian military,” the report says.
“Many of the Russian strikes that Amnesty has documented in recent months were carried out with inherently indiscriminate weapons, including internationally-banned cluster munitions or other explosive weapons with wide-area effects. The Ukrainian military’s practice of locating military objectives within populated areas does not in any way justify indiscriminate Russian attacks,” the organisation stresses.
Experts have determined that the Ukrainian forces based themselves in civilian buildings in 19 towns and villages in the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Mykolaiv regions. The majority of civilian areas where soldiers were based were located “miles away from front lines and viable alternatives were available that would not have endangered civilians — such as military bases, densely-wooded areas or other structures further from residential areas”.
The mother of a 50-year-old man killed in a missile attack on 10 June in a village near Mykolaiv told Amnesty International: “The military were staying in a house next to our home and my son often took food to the soldiers. I begged him several times to stay away from there because I was afraid for his safety. That afternoon, when the strike happened, my son was in the courtyard of our home and I was in the house. He was killed on the spot. His body was ripped to shreds. Our home was partially destroyed.”
Amnesty researchers witnessed soldiers using a residential building some 20 yards from the entrance to an underground shelter used by the residents of Lysychansk.
“Being in a defensive position does not exempt the Ukrainian military from respecting international humanitarian law. Militaries should never use hospitals to engage in warfare and should only use schools or civilian homes as a last resort when there are no viable alternatives,” Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, stressed.
According to the UN, since the start of the war in Ukraine, 5,327 civilians have been killed, another 7,257 have been injured.
The casualty count includes 2,056 men, 1,400 women, 146 girls and 165 boys. It was impossible to determine the sex of 41 deceased children and 1,519 adults, the UN stated.