Amnesty International engaged independent external experts to review the preparation and publication of this press release. Their findings and recommendations are set out in this legal investigation and Ukrainian organization report. Amnesty International welcomes these findings and is committed to implementing their recommendations.
Military bases are set up in residential areas, including schools and hospitals. Attacks carried out from areas with high concentrations of civilians. Such violations justify Russia's indiscriminate attacks that have killed and injured countless civilians. It's never something you do
Amnesty International said today that Ukrainian forces are putting civilians at risk by setting up bases and operating weapons systems in populated areas, including schools and hospitals, as they repel the Russian invasion that began in February. announced.
Such tactics violate international humanitarian law and endanger civilians by turning civilian objects into military targets. Subsequent Russian attacks on populated areas left civilians dead and civilian infrastructure destroyed.
“Ukraine's military has documented a pattern of endangering civilians and violating the laws of war when operating in populated areas,” said Amnesty International Director-General Agnès Callamard.
“Defensive status does not exempt the Ukrainian military from respecting international humanitarian law.”
However, not all Russian attacks recorded by Amnesty International followed this pattern. Evidence of Ukrainian military presence in civilian areas illegally targeted by Russian forces, including in some areas of the city of Kharkiv and in certain other locations where Amnesty International has concluded that Russia has committed war crimes. was not found.
Amnesty International researchers spent several weeks investigating Russian airstrikes in the Kharkov, Donbass and Mykolaiv regions between April and July. The organization inspected the strike site. Interviews were conducted with survivors, witnesses, and relatives of the victims of the attacks. Conducted remote sensing and weapons analysis.
Through these investigations, researchers found evidence that Ukrainian forces were not only based in civilian buildings in 19 towns and villages in the region, but also launched attacks from within populated areas. The organization's Crisis Evidence Lab analyzed satellite imagery to further corroborate some of these cases.
Most of the residential areas where soldiers lived were located several kilometers from the front lines. Viable alternatives were available that did not endanger civilians. For example, nearby military bases, densely wooded areas, or other structures away from residential areas. Amnesty International is not aware of any documented incidents in which Ukrainian forces stationed in civilian buildings in residential areas asked or assisted civilians to evacuate nearby buildings. This is a failure to take all possible precautions to protect civilians.
Starting a strike from a densely populated area
Survivors and witnesses of Russian airstrikes in the Donbass, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions told Amnesty International researchers that at the time of the airstrikes, Ukrainian forces were conducting operations near their homes and that the area was under Russian control. He said he was under retaliatory fire. Amnesty International researchers have witnessed such acts in many places.
International humanitarian law requires parties to a conflict to avoid, to the extent possible, establishing military targets in or near populated areas. Other duties to protect civilians from the effects of attacks include removing civilians from the vicinity of military targets and providing effective warning of attacks that may affect civilians. It will be.
The mother of a 50-year-old man killed in a rocket attack in the southern village of Mykolaiv on June 10 told Amnesty International: He begged me many times to stay away from there because I was worried for his safety. That afternoon, his son was in his courtyard and I was at home when the strike happened. he was killed on the spot. His body was torn to shreds. Our house was partially destroyed. Amnesty International researchers found military equipment and uniforms in the house next door.
Mykola, who lives in a high-rise building in the Liszchansk (Donbass) district, told Amnesty International that she has been repeatedly attacked by Russia and that at least one elderly person has been killed. Not from the field. '' Another resident, a 50-year-old man, said: “There is definitely military activity going on in the neighborhood. You hear fire going out and then you hear fire coming in.'' Researchers from Amnesty International said: , soldiers were seen occupying a residential building about 20 meters from the entrance to the underground shelter used by residents where an elderly man was killed.
On May 6, in a town in the Donbass, Russian troops attacked an area of mostly one- and two-story houses where the Ukrainian army operated artillery, carrying what is essentially a widely prohibited They used indiscriminate cluster munitions. Debris damaged the walls of the house where 70-year-old Anna lives with her son and 95-year-old mother.
Anna said: “A piece of debris came flying through the door. I was inside.”
In early July, Russian troops raided an agricultural warehouse in the Mykolaiv district, injuring a farm worker. Hours after the strike, Amnesty International researchers witnessed the presence of Ukrainian military personnel and vehicles in the grain storage area, indicating that the military was using warehouses across the road from farms where civilians live and work. Witnesses confirmed that.
Amnesty International researchers were surveying damage to homes and adjacent public buildings in villages east of Mykolaiv, in Kharkiv and Donbas, when they heard gunfire coming from nearby Ukrainian military positions.
In Bakhmut, several residents told Amnesty International that Ukrainian forces were occupying a building just 20 meters across the street from a high-rise residential building. On May 18, a Russian missile hit the front of the building, partially destroying five apartment blocks and damaging nearby buildings. Katerina, a resident who survived the strike, said: [There were] Broken windows and a lot of dust…I stayed here because my mother didn't want to leave the house. She has health problems. ”
Three residents told Amnesty International that before the attack, Ukrainian forces were occupying a building opposite the bombed building, and that two military trucks were parked in front of another home that was damaged during the missile attack. He said he was Amnesty International researchers found evidence of a military presence inside and outside the building, including sandbags, black plastic sheets covering windows, and new US-made trauma first aid equipment.
“We have no say in what the military does, but we are paying the price,” a resident whose home was also damaged in the airstrike told Amnesty International.
military base in hospital
Amnesty International researchers witnessed the Ukrainian military using hospitals as de facto military bases in five locations. In the two towns, dozens of soldiers were resting in hospitals, walking around and eating. In another town, soldiers were firing near a hospital.
On April 28, a Russian airstrike wounded two staff members at a medical research institute on the outskirts of Kharkiv, where the Ukrainian military had set up a base.
Using hospitals for military purposes is a clear violation of international humanitarian law.
military base in school
The Ukrainian military regularly establishes bases in schools in towns and villages in Donbass and the Mykolaiv region.Schools have been temporarily closed to students since the conflict began, but in most cases the buildings were located near populated areas.
In 22 of the 29 schools they visited, Amnesty International researchers found soldiers using the premises or found military fatigues, discarded ammunition, military ration packets and military vehicles. Found evidence of current or past military activity, including the presence of
Russian forces attacked many schools used by Ukrainian forces. In at least three towns, Ukrainian soldiers moved to other nearby schools after Russian shelling of the schools, putting surrounding areas at risk of similar attacks.
In the town east of Odesa, Amnesty International witnessed a widespread pattern of Ukrainian soldiers using civilian areas as accommodation and staging areas. These included parking armored vehicles under trees in purely residential areas and using two schools located in densely populated residential areas. From April to late June, Russian airstrikes near schools killed and injured several civilians, including a child and an elderly woman who were killed in a rocket attack on her home on June 28. .
In Bakhmut, Ukrainian forces were using a university building as a base when a Russian airstrike on May 21 reportedly killed seven soldiers. The university is located next to a high-rise residential building that was damaged in the strike, and there are other private residential buildings about 50 meters away. Amnesty International researchers discovered the remains of a military vehicle in the courtyard of a bombed-out university building.
International humanitarian law does not specifically prohibit parties to a conflict from establishing a base in schools that are closed. However, the military is obligated to avoid using schools near civilian homes or apartments unless there is a compelling military need, putting civilians' lives at risk. In such cases, civilians should be warned and, if necessary, assisted in evacuation. This does not appear to have happened in the cases investigated by Amnesty International.
Armed conflicts seriously impede children's right to education, and military use of schools can lead to destruction and further deprive children of this right after the war ends. Ukraine is one of 114 countries supporting the Safe Schools Declaration, an agreement to protect education in situations of armed conflict, which allows states to , the use of abandoned and evacuated schools is permitted.
Indiscriminate attack by Russian military
Many of the Russian airstrikes that Amnesty International has documented in recent months have used inherently indiscriminate weapons, including internationally banned cluster munitions, or other explosive weapons with widespread impact. was executed. Others used guided weapons with varying levels of precision. In some cases, weapons were accurate enough to target specific objects.
The Ukrainian military's practice of establishing military targets in populated areas does not in any way justify Russia's indiscriminate attacks. All parties to a conflict must always distinguish between military and civilian objectives and take all possible precautions, including the selection of weapons, to minimize civilian damage. Indiscriminate attacks that kill or injure civilians or damage civilian property are war crimes.
“The Ukrainian government should immediately move its military away from populated areas or evacuate civilians from areas where the military is active. The military should never use hospitals to participate in wars. Instead, schools and private housing should only be used as a last resort when there are no viable alternatives,” said Agnès Callamard.
Amnesty International contacted the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense regarding the findings on July 29, 2022, but had not yet received a response at the time of publication.
