After accusing Ukraine of war crimes earlier in the week, human rights watchdog Amnesty International apologized on Sunday.

“Amnesty International deeply regrets the distress and anger that our press release on the Ukrainian military’s fighting tactics has caused,” Amnesty said in an email to the Reuters news agency.

“Amnesty International’s priority in this and in any conflict is ensuring that civilians are protected. Indeed, this was our sole objective when releasing this latest piece of research. While we fully stand by our findings, we regret the pain caused,” the organization said.

The report on Ukrainian tactics, released Thursday, accused the Ukrainian military of war crimes. Ukraine, Amnesty said, unnecessarily endangered civilian lives by hosting military bases in hospitals and schools, and launching attacks from residential areas.

The report was immediately criticized by Ukrainian officials. President Zelensky denounced Amnesty for “trying to shift the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim.”

Dissent also came from within Amnesty’s own ranks. The organization’s Ukrainian director, Oksana Pokalchuk, resigned following publication of the report. 

According to Reuters, Ms. Pokalchuk said Amnesty had “created material that sounded like support for Russian narratives of the invasion. In an effort to protect civilians, this study became a tool of Russian propaganda.”

The Kremlin celebrated the report upon its release Thursday. 

“We’re talking about it all the time, calling the actions of Ukraine’s armed forces the tactics of using the civilian population as a ‘human shield,’” a spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry, Maria Zakharova, said in a Telegram post.