Amnesty’s State Dept, CIA Links Make Report on Ukrainian Army Crimes All the More Damning: Observer

Amnesty’s State Dept, CIA Links Make Report on Ukrainian Army Crimes All the More Damning: Observer

Amnesty International’s report on the Ukrainian military’s deployments inside civilian areas and the employment of tactics which endanger civilian lives is all the more damning given the organization’s anti-Russia bias and links to the US government and intelligence services, US journalist and political commentator Don DeBar believes.

Amnesty International Ukraine office director Oksana Pokalchuk resigned over the report, accusing the watchdog of creating materials “that sound like support for Russian narratives,” demanding it be deleted and rewritten, and blasting it for failing to “take into account the position of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.”

Related:

Amnesty International report exposes Ukraine’s violations of international law, deliberate use of civilians as human shields

Significantly, the Ukraine office of the organization vehemently opposed the publication of the report. Its head, Oksana Pokalchuk, declared, “We did everything we could to prevent this report from going public.”

The fact that Amnesty International ended up releasing the report despite serious internal divisions and immense political pressure indicates that the real situation on the ground in Ukraine is, if anything, far more disturbing than even what this report suggests. It should also be noted that the German news magazine Der Spiegel, which has played a prominent role in the anti-Russia war propaganda in Europe, admitted in a report on Friday, rather grudgingly, that its own reporters had made similar findings as Amnesty International and that the conduct of the Ukrainian military “raises legitimate questions.”

In a rare moment of truth, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov recently described his country as a “testing ground” for Western arms manufacturers, which have reaped major profits from the tens of billions of dollars in money for weapons that NATO has pumped into the Ukrainian military.

Biden administration to withdraw Covid-19 vaccination and testing regulation aimed at large businesses

Biden administration to withdraw Covid-19 vaccination and testing regulation aimed at large businesses

“Although OSHA is withdrawing the vaccination and testing ETS as an enforceable emergency temporary standard, the agency is not withdrawing the ETS as a proposed rule. The agency is prioritizing its resources to focus on finalizing a permanent COVID-19 Healthcare Standard,” the statement read.

The withdrawal of the emergency temporary standard “does not affect the ETS’s continuing status as a proposed rule,” a US Department of Labor spokesperson told CNN in a statement.

“OSHA is evaluating the record and the evolving course of the pandemic. OSHA has made no determinations at this time about when or if it will finalize a Vaccination and Testing rule. The agency intends to work expeditiously to issue a final standard that will protect healthcare workers from COVID-19 hazards,” the spokesperson added.