Country Profile
This overview was updated on 30 May 2022.
Russia began an all-out invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, carrying out extensive military operations marked by war crimes and other violations of international humanitarian law. Using indiscriminate weapons such as cluster munitions in populated...
News
Europe and Central Asia
Armed Conflict
A new history textbook which, amongst other things, justifies Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine as a legitimate act of self-defence and violates children’s rights to appropriate and quality education, is a dangerous attempt to indoctrinate future generations, Amnesty International said today....
September 1, 2023
News
Europe and Central Asia
An appeal hearing at a Moscow court on Tuesday (22 August) which has upheld the 13-year sentence imposed on Maksym Butkevych, a Ukrainian human rights defender, is a grave miscarriage of justice Amnesty International said today. The decision to imprison him for 13 years was taken by the so-called...
August 22, 2023
News
Africa
Right to Food
Responding to the Russian armed forces’ latest attack on Odesa’s port infrastructure and grain facilities, and subsequent thinly veiled threat to attack sea vessels attempting to transport Ukraine’s grain, Anna Wright, Amnesty International’s Researcher for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said:...
July 20, 2023
News
Russia
Armed Conflict
Russian authorities are using increasingly vicious tactics to crack down on anti-war activists at home, as its full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine has passed its 500th day. Amnesty International’s new publication exposes the various repressive laws and practices employed by Russia to...
July 20, 2023
News
Africa
Children
Amnesty International South Africa has been admitted as an amicus curiae, friend of the court, in the application for a declaratory order that if Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the BRICS Summit in South Africa due to take place in August, the South African authorities are obliged to...
July 19, 2023
News
Russia
Armed Conflict
Responding to news that the US is to transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine, Patrick Wilcken, Amnesty International’s Researcher on Military, Security and Policing issues said: “Amnesty International has long stressed that cluster munitions are inherently indiscriminate weapons which have caused...
July 7, 2023
News
Russia
Armed Conflict
As the consequences of the Kakhovka dam destruction continue to unfold, the occupying Russian forces have been endangering lives in flood-afflicted areas following the destruction of the dam, while upstream water shortages and an upheaval of livelihoods point to an impending ecological and...
June 15, 2023
News
Europe and Central Asia
Armed Conflict
In response to the destruction of the dam at Kakhovka hydroelectric power station in a part of southern Ukraine occupied by Russia, Marie Struthers, Regional Director, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said: “While towns and villages in downstream Dnipro river are going under water, the human and...
June 6, 2023
News
Europe and Central Asia
Armed Conflict
In response to Russian missile attacks that reportedly killed seven people, including a mother and her child, and injured many more, Denis Krivosheev, Deputy Regional Director, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said: “As Ukraine and other countries in the region mark International Children’s Day, it...
June 1, 2023
News
Africa
Arms Trade
The horrific misuse of tear gas by security forces during brutal crackdowns on protests in Iran, Peru and Sri Lanka last year are among many new incidents detailed in Amnesty International’s updated Tear Gas: An Investigation. The interactive website now includes details of 30 new incidents in 13...
May 30, 2023
News
Ukraine
Armed Conflict
Responding to the latest attacks by Russian forces in Ukraine, including reports of a missile attack on an apartment building which is reported to have killed at least 17 civilians, including two children, Marie Struthers, Regional Director, Eastern Europe and Central Asia said: “Russian missiles...
April 28, 2023
News
Russia
Armed Conflict
Responding to the International Criminal Court (ICC) issuing arrest warrants against Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, and Maria Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of...
March 17, 2023