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Ukrainian soldier
Photo: Efrem Lukatsky/AP
War has been raging in Ukraine since February.
Now the human rights organization Amnesty International has taken a closer look at the Ukrainian warfare - and has made allegations against Kiev's army.
In a report, the organization accuses the Ukrainian troops of endangering some civilians with their tactics against Putin's army.
In the fight against the Russian invasion, which has been going on for more than five months, the Ukrainians set up military bases in populated residential areas - including in schools and hospitals - or operated weapon systems there, according to an Amnesty report published on Thursday.
However, martial law requires parties to a conflict to place military objects as far away as possible from civilian facilities, the organization warned.
The Ukrainian action is "a violation of international humanitarian law" that is not justified by the "Russian war of aggression, which violates international law".
Amnesty experts found evidence in the regions around Mykolayiv in southern Ukraine and near Kharkiv and Donbass in eastern Ukraine between April and June that Ukrainian armed forces fired from residential areas and military posts in 19 cities and towns, including in schools and hospitals set up.
Amnesty quoted a local resident as saying "we are not allowed to have a say in the decisions of the military, but we pay the price."
The human rights organization clarified that Ukraine's defense tactics "in no way" justify the "many indiscriminate strikes by the Russian military with civilian casualties."
The NGO described Russia's attacks as "war crimes".
Amnesty accuses Russia of war crimes
While the report was widely discussed by the Russian media loyal to the Kremlin, Kyiv was outraged.
Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podoliak accused Amnesty of involvement in a Russian propaganda campaign aimed at stopping Western arms supplies.
"The only danger for Ukrainians is the Russian army of executioners and rapists coming to Ukraine and committing genocide," Podoliak wrote on Twitter.
He also pointed out that residents from cities close to the front were repeatedly evacuated - precisely because the lives of the civilian population were a priority for Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression at the end of February, repeated cases of the most serious crimes against civilians have become public, for which Ukraine – but also large parts of the international community – hold Russia responsible.
The most shocking cases include the discovery of hundreds of bodies in the Kiev suburb of Bucha and a rocket attack that hit fleeing Ukrainians in the eastern city of Kramatorsk in April.
asc/dpa/AFP