Terrorist country hiding crippled prisoners of war from Red Cross – OSCE report

The russian authorities are restricting access of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to Ukrainian prisoners of war.

And even in those rare moments when visits were allowed, they showed only those prisoners who were in relatively good condition, hiding the sick, crippled and victims of ill-treatment.

This is stated in the report of the members of the independent expert mission of the OSCE Moscow Mechanism, Ukrinform reports.

According to the members of the mission, the ICRC does not have free and unhindered access to places where Ukrainian prisoners of war are held in russia and in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. Professor Hervé Asensio noted that cooperation with the russian side is "very difficult." While some visits by Red Cross representatives have taken place, they have been few, have not covered all places of detention and have been conducted without full access to all prisoners.

Professor Veronika Bílková added that the access situation is "much worse than it should be by legal standards". ICRC representatives are often not allowed to speak to prisoners in private, which is a gross violation of international norms, as it makes it impossible to obtain truthful information about the conditions of detention.

A key conclusion, based on the testimonies of released Ukrainians, is that the russian authorities are manipulating the ICRC visits. Professor Mark Klamberg reported that former prisoners of war confirm that during inspections they were shown only those prisoners who were "in good condition".

"The ICRC did not have access to those who were sick or who were subjected to cruel treatment. Everything was controlled by the Russian authorities, although the ICRC should have free access," Klamberg emphasized.

In addition to physical denial, russia is hiding information about prisoners. According to Bílková, the Russian National Information Bureau, created under the Russian Defense Ministry to collect data on prisoners, works non-transparently.

"In every warring state, a National Information Bureau should be created to collect information about enemy prisoners. In Ukraine, it has been created and collects data, in particular about Russian prisoners. Information about the Ukrainian bureau is easy to find on the Internet, there is even a website. On the other hand, there is practically no information about the Russian bureau, somewhere there is only a phone number for the families of prisoners," the speakers noted.

The final report of the OSCE expert mission emphasizes that the documented practice of the russian federation in treating Ukrainian prisoners of war, which includes executions, systematic torture, deprivation of the right to a fair trial, and detention in inhumane conditions, indicates war crimes, and in some cases, crimes against humanity.

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