The Armed Forces of Ukraine are establishing military bases and placing military equipment in residential areas, putting civilians at risk. This is stated in a report published by the human rights organization Amnesty International (AI) on Thursday, August 4th. The organization’s press release emphasizes that such tactics violate international humanitarian law – however, they do not justify indiscriminate attacks, including against civilian targets, inflicted by Russian troops.

In April-June, AI experts spent several weeks investigating the bombing of towns and villages by the RF Armed Forces in the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Nikolaev regions. Testimonies from local residents and analysis of satellite imagery showed that the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the indicated period were based in residential areas of at least 19 settlements and fired on Russian positions, exposing locals to fight back. At the same time, experts found no signs that the Ukrainian military was asking civilians to evacuate from these areas or to assist them in this evacuation.

At five sites, Amnesty International staff documented the establishment of UAF bases in hospitals. In addition, the presence of Ukrainian soldiers was noted in 22 of the 29 schools visited. In particular, we are talking about the placement of military equipment in these facilities. In Bakhmut, Ukrainian troops used the local university building as a base, where the nearest residential buildings are just 50 meters away. On May 21, the Russian Armed Forces attacked it, killing, according to the Ukrainian side, seven soldiers.

Russia unmotivated bombing of residential areas

At the same time, in many other cases, AI experts did not find any signs of the presence of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in residential areas and objects on which Russian troops launched rocket and artillery attacks. Among other things, these attacks were carried out using cluster munitions prohibited by international rules, which was recorded by human rights activists in Kharkov. In some cases, the RF Armed Forces attacked with weapons that were insufficiently accurate, while in others their accuracy was sufficient to prevent unintentional attacks on civilians.

Amnesty International called on both sides of the conflict to do everything possible to ensure that civilians are not killed or injured during hostilities. In particular, “the government of Ukraine must immediately make sure that it deploys its armed forces away from residential areas, or evacuates residents of these areas if military operations are carried out there,” said Agnès Calamar, secretary general of the international organization for human rights. .

According to a press release, AI transmitted its findings to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense on July 29, but has yet to receive a response from the department.