Russia blocks Red Cross access to tortured and sick Ukrainians - OSCE
International Committee of the Red Cross (Illustrative photo: Getty Images)
The Red Cross does not have full access to Ukrainian prisoners of war held in Russia and in temporarily occupied territories. Russians often show the mission only to those prisoners who appear to be in a more or less satisfactory condition, according to Ukrinform.
Members of an independent expert mission under the OSCE Moscow Mechanism released a report on violations and crimes committed by Russia in its treatment of Ukrainian POWs. The document records numerous breaches of international law by the aggressor.
Restrictions on access and communication format
One member of the mission, Professor Hervé Asensio (France), noted that cooperation with Russia is extremely difficult for the Committee, although some information exchange does take place.
Asensio said that they believed the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was doing difficult work, but unfortunately, there was evidence that the organization did not have unrestricted access to detention facilities.
According to him, some visits did take place, but there was no opportunity to see all prisoners, and the number of authorizations was insufficient to cover all institutions.
Professor Veronika Bílková (Czech Republic) noted that the current situation is somewhat better than before but still far from the standards required by international law.
She reminded that the ICRC mission has two key tasks: visiting prisoners of war and gathering information about them through national information bureaus.
She emphasized that it was known that certain visits to Russian detention facilities holding Ukrainian prisoners did occur, but that access was often restricted, as ICRC representatives were frequently not allowed to visit all detention sites or speak with prisoners in private, even though this should be the rule.
Closed Russian Bureau
Bílková also drew attention to the closed nature of the Russian National Information Bureau. She explained that every state involved in a war is supposed to have a bureau for collecting data on enemy prisoners. Ukraine has such a bureau, which gathers information, including about Russian prisoners of war.
Russia, on the other hand, announced the creation of its bureau in February-March 2022 under the Ministry of Defense, which supposedly forwards lists to the ICRC Central Tracing Agency for subsequent transfer to Ukraine. However, these lists are incomplete.
Bílková noted that information about the Ukrainian bureau was easy to find in the public domain and that it even had its own website. She added that there was practically no information about the Russian bureau, except for a phone number for relatives of prisoners.
Staged Demonstration
Swedish professor Mark Klamberg, citing testimony from former Ukrainian prisoners, noted that during ICRC visits, Russian authorities only showed those who were in relatively good condition.
He emphasized that those who were sick or had suffered mistreatment were not accessible to the ICRC, and that this was confirmed both by reports and by prisoner testimonies. He added that everything was controlled by the Russian authorities, although the ICRC is supposed to have free access.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has documented cases of systematic torture of Ukrainian prisoners in temporarily occupied territories.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Kyiv is seeking a framework for compiling lists of political prisoners and journalists to facilitate their return from Russian captivity.
According to OSINT intelligence, more than 2,500 Ukrainian servicemen are currently held in Russian captivity.
