The full article is published on The Moscow times
In recent years, Ukraine has been calling on all international organisations to put pressure on the Russian side to revive the exchange of prisoners of war and civilians, and to allow access to all prisoners of war – information about whom Russia deliberately conceals. In particular, the International Committee of the Red Cross is in no hurry to fulfil its functions and tries not to see problems in the war in Ukraine. For example, during the 34th International Conference in Geneva at the end of October, the organisation made no mention of the fact that the Russian side does not allow access to all places where Ukrainian prisoners are held. In other words, Russia is preventing the organisation from fulfilling its mission to monitor the treatment of prisoners.
In total, as a result of more than fifty exchanges between Moscow and Kyiv, about 3,767 Ukrainian prisoners of war and deported civilians were returned home. However, according to the latest data, 14,000 Ukrainian citizens are still in captivity in Russia, and the condition of most of them is unknown.
At least 177 Ukrainians have been killed in Russian captivity since the full-scale invasion. A case in point is the cynical mass execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war who defended Mariupol and Azovstal in the Olenivska colony on 25 July 2022. At least 53 Ukrainian defenders were killed in the Russian terrorist attack and 130 others were injured of varying severity. The most recent high-profile case is the death of Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna in Russian captivity (25 Ukrainian journalists are still in captivity). The Russians did not even bother to return her body during her repatriation on 8 November 2024.
Due to the lack of international oversight, the actual number of deaths is likely to be much higher, as not all bodies are returned. In addition, until recently, Moscow did not provide confirmation of the captivity of most of the hostages. Only on 8 November 2024 did information emerge about the exchange of lists of prisoners visited by both sides (the Ukrainian side – Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine, the Russian side – Ukrainian prisoners of war on its territory). However, there are substantial grounds to believe that the lists on the Russian side are incomplete.
According to the UN Monitoring Mission, as of 1 October 2024, the torture of Ukrainian military personnel in captivity is systematic. The established methods of torture cited in the report include beatings, electric shocks, suffocation, sleep deprivation, mock executions, sexual violence, threats of severe violence against a person or their family, and humiliation. According to the Ukrainian authorities and the UN, 95 per cent of prisoners were subjected to abuse in Russian captivity.
Despite the known facts of Russian crimes, in particular in prison camps, the Red Cross is not too eager to try to reach at least some of the Kremlin’s Ukrainian prisoners. The vast majority of prisoners who have been released testified that they had never seen representatives of the Red Cross committee. In particular, more than 150 places of detention of Ukrainian prisoners in Russia still remain ‘off-limits’ to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The Committee itself acknowledges that it is unable to communicate directly with Ukrainians due to the lack of access from the Russian side. At the same time, the Red Cross staff do not state this in the international arena and make virtually no effort to put pressure on the Kremlin to obtain such access. It seems that this inaction of the International Committee of the Red Cross is quite satisfactory to both the leadership of the organisation and Moscow.
Photo: Ministry of Reintegration
Author: Anton Zemlianyi, Senior Research Fellow at the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center.