Oksana Pokalchuk denounces a report that would have served “Russian propaganda”, where the right of reply from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense is absent, for lack of time to respond.
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After seven years in post in Ukraine, the head of the local branch of Amnesty International, Oksana Pokalchuk, announced her resignation on social networks on Friday August 4. She thus protests against the publication of a report by the NGO on Thursday, accusing it of having unwittingly served “Russian propaganda. “If you don’t live in an invaded country (…) you probably don’t understand what it is to condemn an army of defenders”she added.
The British NGO, for its part, affirmed Friday to fully assume the content of the report which provoked the ire of kyiv. According to this four-month investigation, the Ukrainian army would have established military bases in schools and hospitals and launched attacks from populated areas, a tactic which according to the NGO violates international humanitarian law.
Oksana Pokalchuk said she had tried in vain to convince Amnesty International management of the report’s bias. He did not take into account the point of view of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, contacted too late to be able to respond, Friday, July 29, she believes.
The secretary general of Amnesty International, Agnès Callamard assured Friday that the conclusions of the report were “based on evidence obtained from extensive investigations subject to the same rigorous standards and vetting process as all of Amnesty International’s work”. Amnesty International, however, has insisted that Ukrainian tactics do not “in no way justify the indiscriminate Russian attacks” that hit the civilian population.