The International Committee of the Red Cross does not have full access to Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Russia in the Russian Federation and in the temporarily occupied territories. Sick and mutilated servicemen of the Defense Forces are being hidden by the Russians, who only allow experts to visit those in relatively good condition.
This was stated by members of the independent expert mission of the OSCE Moscow Mechanism during the presentation of their report in Vienna. It was reported by Tochka Shodu, citing Ukrinform.
“Those who were sick or subjected to ill-treatment were not accessible to the ICRC. Everything was controlled by the Russian authorities, although the Red Cross is supposed to have free access,” said commission member Professor Hervé Ascensio.
Czech professor and one of the commission’s experts, Veronika Bilkova, noted that the current situation is “somewhat better” than before, but “much worse than it should be according to legal standards.” The ICRC has not been granted permission to visit all places of detention where Russia is holding Ukrainian prisoners of war, nor to speak with them in private.
Bilkova also added that the work of Russia’s National Information Bureau, which is supposed to collect information about Ukrainian prisoners of war, is “non-transparent.” According to her, unlike the Ukrainian bureau, which operates openly and has its own online platform, almost nothing is known about the Russian office — there is only a phone number for relatives of prisoners. The lists of Ukrainian POWs submitted by Russia through the ICRC are incomplete.
Swedish professor Mark Klamberg reported that, according to testimonies from former Ukrainian prisoners, during visits by ICRC representatives the Russian authorities only showed those who were in relatively good condition.
