Independent experts find faults in Amnesty International report accusing Ukraine

The New York Times reports that in some respects, the expert commission agreed with Amnesty International's findings that the Ukrainian military was often near civilians.

However, the commission unanimously concluded that Amnesty International had made several mistakes in its statement, and its key conclusions about Ukraine's violations of international law were not sufficiently supported by the available evidence.

The overall narrative of the August 4 statement was “written in language that was ambiguous, imprecise, and in some respects legally questionable,” the report says.

“This is particularly the case with the opening paragraphs, which could be read as implying — even though this was not A.I.’s intention — that, on a systemic or general level, Ukrainian forces were primarily or equally to blame for the death of civilians resulting from attacks by Russia.”

In an email, an Amnesty International spokesperson characterized the independent review as part of an ongoing internal process, and these findings will help inform and improve our future work.

• On August 4, the international non-governmental human rights organization Amnesty International stated in its report that the Ukrainian military endangered civilians by setting up bases and placing weapons in schools and hospitals. 

• Ukrainian President Zelenskyy commented on Amnesty International's report and said that this is how the human rights organization is trying to grant amnesty to the terrorist state.

• Later, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard responded to the criticism of her organization's report and said that it would not "weaken the impartiality" of the team.

• On August 7, Amnesty International apologized for the "suffering and anger" caused by its report accusing the Ukrainian military of endangering civilians, but it is not going to revise its assessment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

• It has become known that the human rights organization Amnesty International used the testimonies of people who were held in 'filtration camps' and prisons in the temporarily occupied territories to prepare its report on the war in Ukraine.

• Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz emphasized that the Amnesty International report shows the strong influence of Russia on the organization.

• Per Wastberg, co-founder of Amnesty International's Swedish division, decided to leave the organization because of the report, which accused the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

• After the publication of the report, in which Amnesty International accused the Armed Forces of putting civilians at risk, the Finnish branch of the human rights organization lost about 400 donors.