BBC Online :
Human rights group Amnesty International says there is evidence of atrocities committed by both warring sides in eastern Ukraine, but not on the scale reported by Russia.
There is “strong evidence” implicating Ukrainian government forces in the summary killing of four men at Nyzhnya Krynka, a new Amnesty report says.
When the bodies were discovered Russian media spoke of “mass graves” there.
Shelling has continued in some areas despite a truce agreed on 5 September.
“There is no doubt that summary killings and atrocities are being committed by both pro-Russian separatists and pro-Kyiv [Kiev] forces in eastern Ukraine, but it is difficult to get an accurate sense of the scale of these abuses,” said Amnesty’s Europe and Central Asia director John Dalhuisen.
Amnesty urged both sides to investigate such killings and other abuses thoroughly, because some had been “deliberately misrecorded”.
“Some of the more shocking cases that have been reported, particularly by Russian media, have been hugely exaggerated,” Dalhuisen said.
The pro-Russian rebellion began in Donetsk and Luhansk in April, inspired by Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in March.
The separatists in the predominantly Russian-speaking east were enraged by the overthrow of elected pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Amnesty compiled its report based on research conducted widely in eastern Ukraine in August-September.
In the Nyzhnya Krynka case, an Amnesty delegation visited the site on 26 September.
Four bodies were found – believed to be local residents – and Amnesty says there is no doubt that Ukrainian government troops and volunteers were in control there when the victims went missing.
There is also evidence of summary executions by pro-Russian separatists in the region, Amnesty says, including the killing of two captives in Severodonetsk in July.
Two bodies found in April near the town of Raigorodok, in rebel-held territory, bore signs of torture, Amnesty says.
“Victims have included pro-Ukrainian activists and suspected sympathisers, local criminals and detained combatants,” an Amnesty press release said.
