Ukraine demands the admission of international observers to prisoners of war in Russia: details

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During the week, the Russian invaders captured and shot six unarmed Ukrainian soldiers. Three more — in the same Pokrovsky direction on November 1. The prosecutor's office recalled that the killing of prisoners of war is a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions, which qualifies as a serious international crime. Those Ukrainian fighters who end up in federal prisons are held by the Russians in inhumane conditions, FREEDOM reports.

The Turkish ombudsman will visit Ukrainian prisoners in Russian prisons. Moscow agreed to Sheref Malkoch's visit.

“Russia, as before, does not adhere to the Geneva Conventions. We see this from the state in which soldiers return home after captivity. However, it has finally become known that the Russian Federation has agreed to a visit by the Chief Ombudsman of Turkey, Şeref Malkoç, who, as in Ukraine, will visit places where prisoners of war are held,” said Dmytro Lubinets, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, in Telegram.

Returning from captivity, Ukrainian soldiers talk about humiliation, beatings, hunger and torture. Kyiv demands that prisoners of war be examined by foreign doctors. But Russia, contrary to the norms of the Geneva Conventions, has still not agreed to the work of mixed medical commissions. Thanks to them, seriously wounded defenders could be returned to Ukraine or taken to neutral countries. In Ukraine, such a commission was created in the summer of 2023.

“I was in one of the camps where Russian prisoners of war were held, and the wounded Russians asked why there are no exchanges, why they are not returned to their homeland? And, actually, the answer to this question is the fact that the Russian side has not done anything until now – more than a year has passed since the formation of a mixed medical commission from the Ukrainian side – until now. We are ready to bring home the seriously wounded and seriously ill,” Petro Yatsenko, a representative of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, said.

Sheref Malkoch's visit was not agreed upon in Russia for more than half a year. The Turkish ombudsman appealed to the Russian authorities at the end of March 2024 after a trip to Ukraine. Here he met with the families of Ukrainian prisoners of war and missing persons, and also visited the Zapad-1 camp, where Russian soldiers are held.

“I will pass on this information, I will tell about my visit to the Russian ombudsman. I will ask that I be able to visit the Ukrainian prisoners held on the territory of Russia in the same way. I hope we will succeed. After that, we will think about which camps and prisons to show us. At this stage, the most important thing is to see whether the Russian commissioners and ombudsmen will accept our offer to visit the Ukrainian prisoners,” said Turkey's chief ombudsman Sheref Malkoc.

In July 2024, Malkoc reported that Russia was ignoring the office's requests the chief ombudsman of Turkey, and noted that Ankara intends to address this issue to the UN Secretary General.

“According to the results [of the visit to Ukraine], we held an online meeting with the Russian ombudsman Tetyana Moskalkova and wrote a letter, but we never received an answer. In this regard, I wrote a letter to the Russian Embassy in Ankara on July 5, 2024. We are trying to establish all possible contacts on this matter. It is not easy, since we are dealing with Russia,” said Sheref Malkoch.

Which places of detention of Ukrainian prisoners in Russia will be visited by the Turkish delegation, as well as the exact dates of the visit, are still unknown. Earlier, Malkoch said that after the trip, he plans to publish a detailed report on the conditions in which Ukrainians are, and he called facilitating the exchange of prisoners as the best possible result.