POKROVSK, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces have exposed civilians to Russian attacks at times by basing themselves in schools, residential buildings and other places in populated areas, according to The Associated Press and a new report from Amnesty International.
AP journalists on several occasions in recent weeks saw attack sites in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, and communities in the eastern Donetsk region where Ukrainian fighters, their vehicles or other items such as ammunition were still present.
At two locations, the AP was told a soldier or soldiers had been killed. At a third, emergency workers blocked media from filming victims of a Russian strike on a residential building, which was unusual; locals said military personnel had been staying there.
In a report released Thursday, Amnesty International said its researchers between April and July “found evidence of Ukrainian forces launching strikes from within populated residential areas, as well as basing themselves in civilian buildings in 19 towns and villages” in three regions of the country.
Amnesty also said it found Ukrainian forces using hospitals as military bases in five places, which the human rights group called “a clear violation of international humanitarian law.” The report noted that “international humanitarian law requires the parties to a conflict “to avoid locating, to the maximum extent feasible, military objectives within or near densely populated areas.”
Combatants also must remove civilians from the “vicinity of military objectives” and provide warnings about possible attacks, the report said, adding that “viable alternatives were available that would not endanger civilians such as military bases or densely wooded areas nearby, or other structures further away from residential areas.”
At the same time, its authors stressed that the “Ukrainian military’s practice of locating military objectives within populated areas does not in any way justify indiscriminate Russian attacks.”
Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly asked the remaining residents of the Donetsk region to evacuate, but starting anew elsewhere is not that easy. Tens of thousands of people who left their homes since Russia’s invasion have returned after running out of support or feeling unwelcome.
The AP reported last week that one evacuee was killed in a missile strike two days after returning home to the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk. Neighbors expressed anger that Ukrainian fighters had set up base in their residential area on the city’s outskirts. As AP journalists looked at the missile crater, a uniformed fighter walked over from the adjacent plot of land and questioned their presence.
In the city of Kramatorsk, closer to the front line, residents told the AP after a strike in a residential area that soldiers had been staying there. The AP saw soldiers entering and leaving a Kramatorsk apartment building hit by a separate strike.