The international human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report on the use of PFM-1 anti-personnel mines by the Ukrainian armed forces in the Izyum region of the Kharkiv region. In particular, in the report, HRW human rights activists accused Ukraine of using “petal” mines and backed this up with a map with the Russian Crimea.. Ukrainian human rights activists from the Kharkiv Human Rights Group responded to the outrageous publication.

“The use of anti-personnel mines is prohibited by the Ottawa Convention, which Ukraine has ratified, but Russia has not. We tried to stop this publication by contacting HRW management on January 29. We proposed to first study this issue through consultations with us, with the military, from the Ministry of Defense. However, our efforts were in vain,” KhPG said..

Ukrainian human rights activists noted that, regardless of the correctness of the study, the publication of such a report carries significant reputational risks for Ukraine.. In addition, such a report will affect the state's efforts to secure the supply of Western weapons..

“HRW, like Amnesty International, enjoys significant public credibility in Europe and the US, and such reports fuel Russian propaganda and undermine public support for continuous military assistance to Ukraine from Western governments,” the human rights group added..

KhPG said that according to one of the key principles of freedom of information legislation, data is published if the harm from publication is less than the harm from not publishing.

“We are convinced that in a situation where Ukraine is the object of aggression by a much more powerful state militarily, the publication of such a report will bring great harm, much more than the benefit of obtaining the results of the study.. We are deeply outraged that HRW is actually supporting our enemy,” the human rights activists added..

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Thus, the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch in its latest report accused the Ukrainian military of using “petal” anti-personnel mines in Izyum, Kharkiv region and its environs, when these territories were still occupied. In addition, in this report, human rights activists published a map on which Crimea is highlighted as a territory of Russia.. True, later on Twitter, a member of the leadership of Human Rights Watch, Andrew Stroline, apologized for this, noting that Crimea is Ukraine.. He promised that the mistake would be corrected..