The director of the Ukrainian office of Amnesty International, Oksana Pokalchuk, announced that she was resigning. She wrote about this on Facebook on August 5.
"I am resigning from Amnesty International in Ukraine. This is another loss that the war brought me. Favorite work, 7 years of life, plans for the future, and the last 5 months — a lifeline in the form of human rights work for the benefit of the native country during the war. Everything crashed against the wall of bureaucracy and a deaf language barrier. Itʼs not about English, itʼs about the fact that if you donʼt live in a country invaded by invaders and are tearing it to pieces, you probably donʼt understand what it means to condemn an army of defenders. And there are no words in any language that can convey this to someone who has not felt this pain," said Pokalchuk.
Pokalchuk emphasized that the Ukrainian office constantly emphasized that the press release issued by the organization on August 4 should have investigated two sides and taken into account the position of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
- On August 4, the international human rights organization Amnesty International published a report in which it accused the Ukrainian army of violating humanitarian law and creating danger for civilians by placing military bases in residential areas, schools and hospitals. Ukraine was outraged by this report: the Minister of Foreign Affairs stated that the organization creates a false balance between the criminal and the victim. Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Presidentʼs Office, told Amnesty that the only ones who put Ukrainian civilians at risk are the Russian troops. He noted that Ukraine always tries to evacuate people from war zones as much as possible. Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov recalled the brutal treatment of the Russian occupiers and stated that it was thanks to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Defense Forces that many Ukrainians remained alive. Later, the Director General of Amnesty International stated that Ukrainian and Russian "mobs and trolls" are harassing the organization, "but this will not weaken impartiality and will not change the facts."