Amnesty International Thursday released a report which accused Ukraine of basing troops in residential areas, prompting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to say that the report “tries to shift the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim.”

The report quoted Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, as saying “We have documented a pattern of Ukrainian forces putting civilians at risk and violating the laws of war when they operate in populated areas.”

Amnesty workers witnessed Ukrainian forces “establishing bases and operating weapons systems” in populated residential areas near the front from April to July, the report said. Callamard called on the Ukrainian government to ensure that its forces were located away from populated areas or for all civilians to be evacuated from those areas first.

President Zelenskyy led fierce Ukrainian denunciations of Amnesty’s allegations, accusing the group of abetting “unprovoked” and “terroristic” Russian attacks on Ukraine.

Russia, meanwhile, saw the Amnesty report as a positive development for its invasion, with the Russian Embassy in the UK happily sharing it on its Twitter feed.

⚡@Amnesty confirms #Ukraine tactics violate international humanitarian law & endanger civilians. 🇺🇦forces set up bases in residential areas, incl schools & hospitals; launch attacks from populated civilian areas – exactly what #Russia has been saying all along.#StopNaziUkraine pic.twitter.com/eI2SUtcymo

— Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) August 4, 2022