Russia abuses prisoners of war and hides it

The Russian Federation wants to hide many abuses against Ukrainian prisoners of war.

The Russian Federation is trying to manipulate the subject of the exchange of prisoners of war and thus wants to destabilize the situation in Ukraine.

The Russian Federation is delaying the exchange because terrible facts of abuse may be revealed

According to the analysts of the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Moscow accused Kyiv of suspending the exchange of prisoners of war for several months amid reports of large-scale abuses by the Russian Federation against Ukrainian prisoners of war.

In particular, the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, Tetiana Moskalkova, accused Ukraine of making “far-fetched demands” that caused a pause in the exchange of prisoners of war over the past few months, – writes Unian. At the same time, she claims that Russia is doing everything possible to support the dialogue with the Ukrainian government and the International Committee of the Red Cross in matters of prisoners of war.

Petro Yatsenko, a representative of the Ukrainian Coordination Staff for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, emphasized in November 2023 that Russia suspended the exchange of prisoners of war in the summer of 2023 for an unknown reason. The last exchange took place on February 8, 2024, with the assistance of the United Arab Emirates.

Ukraine was forced to open a third camp for Russian prisoners of war partly because of “the actual blocking of exchanges by the Russian side” and partly because of the growing number of deserters in the Russian army.

In recent months since the exchange, Russia has committed a number of apparent abuses, including extrajudicial executions and the use of prisoners of war as human shields in the field, as well as the alleged operation of a “black market” for the sale of Ukrainian prisoners of war to Russian paramilitary groups.

In addition, Russia is also using a battalion consisting mostly of Ukrainian prisoners of war to conduct hostilities in Ukraine, which is another flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention.

About seven thousand Ukrainians are in Russian captivity

Therefore, the ISW came to the conclusion that Moskalkova’s accusation may be an attempt to shift the blame to Ukraine and to hide many abuses by the aggressor country against Ukrainian prisoners of war, which may lead to inflaming discontent in Ukrainian society and divert attention from the support of Ukraine by Western countries.

The report suggests that the Kremlin is using the prisoner-of-war exchange policy as another ploy to undermine decision-making in Ukraine.