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Most Ukrainian POWs haven’t seen Red Cross while in Russian captivity.
Ukraine’s Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on July 20 that most Ukrainian prisoners of war who were released had never been visited by the Red Cross representatives while in Russian captivity.
His post on social media came in response to a recent interview of Boris Michel, the head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Russia, with the Russian state-controlled media RIA Novosti.
In the interview, Michel claimed that ICRC staff visited 3,100 prisoners of war in Russia and Ukraine, adding that these visits “are very important for the prisoners of war themselves and their relatives, as they await news about their loved ones.”
Lubinets said that Michel didn’t specify how many visits were paid to POWs separately in Russia and Ukraine because “almost all” the POWs who received the visits were Russian prisoners held by Ukraine in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.
“When talking with our defenders who returned from enemy captivity, I learned that the vast majority of them had not seen or communicated with representatives of the ICRC during the entire time of their captivity,” he said.
Previously, the ICRC refused to disclose the number of Ukrainian POWs it visited in Russia. The organization had been criticized by Ukrainian society before for violating its principles of neutrality and failing to fulfill its duties related to Ukrainian prisoners held in Russia.
Lubinets added that during meetings with families of Ukrainian prisoners of war, representatives of the ICRC “under the guise of neutrality announce that ‘both sides’ should provide access” to the organization. “And they forget to add that it is the Russian side that should change the practice of not allowing ICRC workers to places where Ukrainian defenders are held.”
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