More than 90% of Ukrainian prisoners in the Russian Federation were subjected to brutal treatment and torture

Cruel treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian hostages is a purposeful policy of Russia since the beginning of aggression against Ukraine in 2014. This is also an indicator of the imperfection of the tools of international institutions, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the United Nations, which cannot change the situation, even ensure that all those who were captured were registered, received medical care, and could notify their relatives. This was stated on October 20 by human rights activist, executive director of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union for Human Rights, Oleksandr Pavlichenko.

“But most importantly, international organizations could protect against ill-treatment and torture. Unfortunately, interviewing Ukrainian prisoners of war who were released from captivity, we can say that more than 90% of those who were in captivity were ill-treated and tortured. There are cases of deaths or murders in places of detention where Ukrainian prisoners of war were kept. They were kept without observing any normal civilized rules with the use of cruel torture, cruel treatment, humiliating treatment. This is the policy that Russia has been practicing since 2014, capturing and detaining Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian hostages. The latter currently have the status of civilian hostages, but in fact they are actually civilians captured by a terrorist organization, who should not be persecuted in this way,” comments the human rights defender.

He noted that, unlike Ukraine, Russia does not grant international organizations free access to places of detention of prisoners of war.

“If on Ukrainian territory they can enter the camp where Russian prisoners of war are held at any time, then the same representatives of international organizations, such as the OSCE or the International Committee of the Red Cross, can visit places of detention where Ukrainian prisoners of war are held, only with the permission of the authorities , which are allowed in moderation. And only to those to whom they want to admit representatives of these international organizations. That is, they do not have free access,” Pavlichenko explains.

Accordingly, as the human rights defender says, international organizations cannot respond to signals about torture and carry out independent monitoring.

“This is one of the big problems that is on the agenda of international organizations today: the question of how to achieve the effectiveness of such control and make it work on both sides. This is a task that must be solved in order to, first of all, ensure the security of detention of persons who were captured on both sides of the war,” added the executive director of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union for Human Rights.