The director of Amnesty International’s Ukraine chapter resigned on Friday after the human rights organization released a report that claimed Ukrainian forces were endangering civilians by setting up camp in populated areas.
in a Facebook post on Friday nightOksana Pokalchuk accused Amnesty International of failing to acknowledging the realities of the war in Ukraine and ignoring the advice of staff members, who urged the group to review their report.
“It is painful to admit, but Amnesty International leaders and I have been divided over values,” Pokalchuk wrote. “I believe that any work done for the good of society must take into account the local context and think about the consequences.”
the reportwhich provoked the wrath of top ukrainian officials Y Western scholars of international and military lawit alleged that the Ukrainian forces violated international humanitarian law by establishing bases and operating weapons systems in schools, hospitals and other populated areas.
“We have documented a pattern in which Ukrainian forces endanger civilians and violate the laws of war when operating in populated areas,” Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, said in the report. “Being in a defensive position does not exempt the Ukrainian army from respecting international humanitarian law.”
Pokalchuk claimed that because the Ukrainian Defense Ministry did not have adequate time to respond to the findings, the report became a “Russian propaganda tool”. Russian forces have defended attacks on civilian areas by suggesting that Ukrainian fighters set up firing positions at selected locations.
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Latest developments:
►Ukrainian military personnel fortified their positions around the eastern city of Sloviansk, awaiting another Russian attempt to seize the strategic point in the fiercely disputed Donetsk region.
►The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said Friday in an evaluation that Russian forces transferred personnel and equipment from the Donbas region to southern Ukraine to push back a Ukrainian counteroffensive around the occupied port city of Kherson.
Russia launches assault on two cities in eastern Ukraine
Russian forces began an assault Saturday on Bakhmut and Avdiivka, two towns in the eastern Donetsk region, and kept up rocket attacks and shelling on other Ukrainian towns, including one near Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, they said. Ukrainian military and local officials.
Russian shelling killed five civilians and injured 14 others in the Donetsk region, Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko wrote on Telegram on Saturday. The governor of the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentyn Reznichenko, said three civilians were injured after Russian rockets landed on a residential neighborhood in Nikopol.
– The Associated Press
Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of power plant attack
Russia and Ukraine blamed each other on Friday for the bombing of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is the largest of its kind in Europe.
Ukraine’s state nuclear power company, Energoatom, said in a statement on Friday that Russian forces fired on the plant and “created a humanitarian disaster in the city”. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy he also blamed Russia in his Friday night speechwhich suggests that the attack should be a reason to increase sanctions to the country.
“This is the largest nuclear power plant on our continent. And any bombing of this facility is an open and brazen crime, an act of terror,” Zelenskyy said.
The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the attack was the work of Ukraine.
“Fortunately, the Ukrainian shells missed the oil and fuel facility and the nearby oxygen plant, thus preventing a larger fire and possible radiation accident,” a ministry statement said. according to Reuters.
War is approaching a ‘new phase’, UK Ministry of Defense says
the British Ministry of Defense said on Saturday that Russia’s war in Ukraine is approaching a “new phase” as heavy fighting moves to the parallel to the Dnieper River between Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
The ministry said Russian forces moved southwest, away from the Donbas region, “almost certainly” in anticipation of a counteroffensive or possible attack from Ukraine.
Ukrainian forces have attacked bridges, ammunition depots and rail links with “increasing frequency” in Ukraine’s southern regions to try to disrupt Russian logistics supplies, the ministry said.
Grain shipments from Ukraine offer hope and solution to food crisis
A ship carrying corn to the port of Tripoli in northern Lebanon would not normally cause a stir, but this one came from the Black Sea port of Odessa in Ukraine.
The Razoni, loaded with more than 26,000 tons of corn for chicken feed, emerged on the brink of war that has threatened food supplies in Lebanon, which has the highest food inflation rate in the world, a staggering 122%. , and depends on Black. Sea region for almost all its wheat.
The fighting has trapped 20 million tons of grain inside Ukraine, and Razoni’s departure on Monday marked an important first step in extracting those food supplies and bringing them to farms and bakeries to feed millions of impoverished and hungry people in Africa. , Middle East and parts of Asia.
“Actually, looking at shipping movement is a big deal,” said Jonathan Haines, a senior analyst at data and analytics firm Gro Intelligence. “These 26,000 tons on the scale of the 20 million tons that are locked up is nothing, absolutely nothing … but if we start to see this, every shipment that goes is going to increase confidence.”
Contributing: The Associated Press
