​Military analyst Jack Watling of the Royal Institute of Armed Forces in London has strongly criticized a report published by Amnesty International on Thursday, which accuses the Ukrainian armed forces of putting civilians at risk by deploying their forces in residential areas.

“Amnesty’s report demonstrates a poor understanding of the laws of armed conflict, a lack of understanding of military operations and indulges in innuendo without providing evidence. It is not a violation of international humanitarian law that the Ukrainian armed forces are deployed on the territory they are tasked to protect, and not on some random wooded area where they can be bypassed,” he said in his address. Twitter.

He also reminds that the Ukrainian Armed Forces regularly called on civilians to leave the war zones and helped them to do so. Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in late July that authorities were providing support to approximately 200,000 to 220,000 civilians who had fled Donetsk Oblast after authorities asked them to leave the war zone.

Also, on July 30, the Kyiv authorities made a decision on the mandatory evacuation of the population of Donetsk region, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyi personally called on the population to leave, especially families with children.

Ukraine asked civilians to leave Donetsk

“Many people refuse to leave… But it really needs to be done (…) The sooner it is done, the more people leave Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill. Therefore, if there is an opportunity, talk to those who still remained in the combat zone in Donbas. Please convince them that they should leave, especially if they are families with children,” he said.

Zelensky emphasized that people who leave their homes will receive “full support, full assistance – both material and technical, and payment.”

“We just need a decision by the people themselves, who have not yet made it themselves. Go, we will help you. We are not Russia. That is why every life is important to us. And we will use all available opportunities to save as many lives as possible and limit Russian terror as much as possible,” he said at the end of last month.

Jack Watling also notes that the forced displacement of civilians is a violation of international law and that throughout history many civilians have chosen to remain in areas of hostilities.

“By setting unattainable expectations for the protection of civilians, Amnesty is undermining an important issue,” he concludes.

Zelensky visits Mykolaiv (PHOTO: President of Ukraine)

Accusations of Amnesty International against the Ukrainian armed forces

The international organization’s report published on Thursday said that Ukrainian armed forces are endangering the lives of civilians by setting up bases and operating weapons in residential areas, including schools and hospitals.

Amnesty wrote the report after its investigators spent several weeks investigating strikes by Moscow’s armed forces in the Kharkiv, Donbas and Mykolaiv regions, talking to survivors, eyewitnesses and relatives of victims of the attacks.

The report says that investigators found evidence of shelling by Ukrainians from residential areas, as well as the creation of military bases in civilian buildings in 19 cities and villages of these regions.

The excerpt from the report directly referenced by Jack Watling states that the Ukrainian armed forces had alternatives available that would not threaten the lives of civilians, such as military bases, wooded areas or other structures located further from residential areas.

Amnesty investigators say they have witnessed the use of hospitals as military bases in 5 different locations and that the practice is a serious violation of international law.

They also wrote that in 22 of the 29 schools they visited, they found either soldiers using the building or evidence that it had been used for military purposes. Schools were temporarily closed after the start of the war, but in most cases documented by investigators, they were located near populated areas.

Late Thursday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sharply criticized the report’s findings, saying the international organization was “trying to amnesty a terrorist state” in Russia and that Amnesty was shifting “responsibility from the aggressor to the victim.”

Earlier on Thursday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, said that he was “outraged” by the “unfair” accusations of the NGO.

Ukrainian school destroyed by bombing (PHOTO: Serhii Bobok / AFP / Profimedia Images)

Who is Jack Watling?

A researcher at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the world’s oldest military and security think tank, has been awarded a PhD with a thesis on the evolution of British civil war policy in the early 20th century.

He has recently published research on Russian deterrence policy, military modernization, the future of military operations, and Iran’s strategic culture.

Before joining RUSI, he worked in Iraq, Mali, Rwanda, Brunei and other countries, initially as a journalist. While working in the media, he has written for such prestigious publications as Reuters, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, The Guardian, Haaretz and others.

In a series of tweets this week, he explained why Russian weapons only work well on paper, noting that the problem is not the equipment itself, but poor training of the crews.

In an analysis presented at the RUSI conference in late June, Watling estimated that Ukraine had lost more soldiers in the war launched by Vladimir Putin on February 24 than the total number of infantry in the British army.

Watling at press time (PHOTO: Pulitzer Center)

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