Amnesty International in Ukraine must work”differently“, estimates this Saturday, August 6, General Jérôme Pellistrandi, editor-in-chief of the journal Défense Nationale, while the situation “on the ground is immensely complicated“. The head of Amnesty International in Ukraine, Oksana Pokaltchouk, resigned over a matter of “conflict of values” following the publication of a report by the NGO pointing in particular to 19 situations where the Ukrainian army put endangering civilian populations, for example, with the installation of soldiers in hospitals to rest.
>> What is contained in the Amnesty International investigation which accuses kyiv of endangering civilians
franceinfo: Had the resignation of Oksana Pokaltchouk become inevitable?
Jerome Pellistrandi: There really is an ambiguity in this report which justifies the resignation of the representative of Amnesty International in Ukraine. The objective of the Russians is not to conquer empty spaces, but to conquer the cities because it is in the cities that you find economic, political and intellectual power. So cities become objectives and, de facto, civilian populations are targets.
“Even if it must be recognized that the Ukrainian government has done everything to evacuate the civilian population as much as possible. It is extremely difficult to think that we can spare the civilian population 100%”.
Jérôme Pellistrandi, editor-in-chief of the journal Défense Nationalefranceinfo
Amnesty International is adorning itself with its moral authority to issue an opinion on a situation which, on the ground, is immensely complicated. I think Amnesty International needs to work differently on this type of conflict.
After the bombing of the Zaporijia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the largest in Europe, the International Atomic Energy Agency believes that the situation is increasingly “volatile”. What’s the risk ?
A nuclear accident is far from being ruled out. A nuclear reactor is not made to be in the middle of combat. The reactor vessels are supposed to withstand, for example, the impact of a small plane. But if you destroy ancillary installations such as transformers and cooling systems, you jeopardize the operation of the plant. It’s playing with fire to have these fights and this militarization of the area around the plant, a militarization that is linked to the Russian occupation.
Cereal exports have resumed thanks to the agreement signed between Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations, can the pace of these exports accelerate?
The ports around Odessa are not about to regain the pre-war rhythm. The ships which evacuate the cereals are searched in search of exit of armament. It’s a very slow process. Only a few hundred thousand tonnes of cereals will be exported out of the 20 to 25 million tonnes to be released. It will still take a long time.