In May 2022, former Ombudsman for Human Rights of Ukraine, Lyudmila Denisova, was removed from her position. This happened due to criticism on how she communicated insights on cases of sexual violence allegedly committed by Russian military forces against Ukrainian civilians during the Russian attack on Ukraine in 2022.
As was relayed by plenty of news outlets at the time, Denisova stated she had "exaggerated" in her reports. This seems to be the origin of two different narratives:
One interpretation is that she exaggerated in the way she reported about the incidents, in the sense that everything happened as she had described, but she described the incidents with more detail than what would have been necessary. For example:
(...) speaking about the language she used in her reports, Ms Denisova said: “Yes, then this vocabulary was very harsh. I said that, indeed, maybe I exaggerated. But I tried to achieve the goal of convincing the world to provide weapons and pressure.”
Ms Denisova stands by her reports despite being removed from her position.
UPDATE: Sacked Ukraine official “exaggerated” reports of sexual crimes by Russian soldiers
Note that this article itself indeed insinuates interpretation #2, see below, but the contained quote that I re-quoted here specifically links the admitted exaggeration to "language".The other interpretation is that she exaggerated the incidents themselves, that is, that she made up parts of what she described. For example:
Speaking to a Ukrainian news outlet, Denisova said that the information about rapes that she spread served her goal to obtain more military aid, confirming that “indeed, maybe I exaggerated” some of the rape claims.
This contrast was also addressed in a comment by user bytebuster on a related question:
Whether or not Mrs. Denisova exaggerated the "very harsh vocabulary" when describing Russian gang/children rapes, or why would certain news outlets title this like "Denisova exaggerated Russian rape claims", making its readers think that there were no Russian gang rapes at all, — is another question (...)
Thus, as no-one seems to have posted this other question, I'm going to do it:
Did Lyudmila Denisova admit to exaggerating the stated facts of the rape incidents, rather than just to picking overly drastic words to describe the incidents while staying true to the facts?
The original interview linked to by one of the aforementioned articles (preferrably read and understood by someone who can read it without running it through an auto-translator) might be a first trace, though maybe follow-up information was also provided for clarification in other sources by Ms. Denisova or someone officially speaking on her behalf.
