On August 4, Amnesty International accused Ukrainian military of putting civilians in danger by fighting in the populated residential areas, which prompted a swift response of top Ukrainian officials.

The Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksiy Reznikov, stated that any attempts to question the right of Ukrainians to resist genocide, to protect their families and homes, to protect their lives and the lives of their children, to resist the terrorist actions of the Russian Federation are ‘perversions, whatever legal constructions mask them’.

He noted that the only reason why hundreds of thousands of our citizens are still alive, although they could have already died, and that millions have a home, although they could have lost it, is the selfless heroic actions of the Defense Forces of Ukraine.

The minister said that Russians invaders use all kinds of weapons, including the prohibited ones, kill prisoners of war, rape and loot, and commit genocide against the people of Ukraine.

According to the minister, any attempt to equate unprovoked Russian aggression with Ukrainian self-defense, as done in the Amnesty International statement, is evidence of a loss of adequacy and a way to destroy own authority.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine called this statement ‘the creation of a false balance between the perpetrator and the victim’. Foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba emphasized on Instagram that such a statement by Amnesty International is not a search and delivery of the truth to the world.

Mykhailo Podoliak, top Zelensky official, also responded to the statement.

‘The only thing that poses a threat to the lives of Ukrainians is the Russian army of executioners and rapists, which came to Ukraine to commit genocide. Our defenders protect their people and families. People’s lives are an absolute priority for Ukraine, which is why we are evacuating residents of front-line cities’, Podoliak wrote on Twitter.