The Russian Federation hides sick and crippled Ukrainian prisoners of war from the Red Cross: OSCE

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) does not have free access to Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia and the temporarily occupied territories, and on the rare occasions when visits are allowed, only those prisoners who are in relatively good condition are shown. This was reported by the members of the independent expert mission of the Moscow Mechanism of the OSCE during the press conference in Vienna on the presentation of the report on violations and crimes. related to the treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war by the Russian Federation.

“As you know, the ICRC works on the basis of strict confidentiality, which is understandable given its tasks. There have been statements by the ICRC that cooperation with Russia has been very difficult, but we know that some cooperation and transfer of information through the ICRC is taking place. We believe that the ICRC is doing a difficult job, but unfortunately there are indications that the ICRC does not have free access to places of detention, said a member of the mission, Professor Hervé Asensio (France).

He added that “some visits took place, but without full access to the prisoners, and there were not enough permits for such visits to cover all places of detention.

According to Professor Veronika Bilkova (Czech Republic), the current situation is “slightly better” than before, but “much worse than it should be by legal standards”. She explained that the ICRC has two key roles — visiting prisoners of war and collecting data about them through national information bureaus.

“It is stated that visits (visits of ICRC representatives to Russian prisons to visit Ukrainian prisoners of war – ed.) sometimes take place, but the ICRC often does not allow them to visit all places of detention or talk to prisoners alone, although this should be the rule, Bilkova noted.

In addition, the OSCE expert reported on the “opacity” the work of the Russian National Information Bureau.

“A National Information Bureau should be established in each belligerent nation to collect information about enemy prisoners. It was created in Ukraine and collects data, in particular, about Russian prisoners. In Russia, the bureau was also created in February or March 2022 under the Ministry of Defense, and it transfers the lists of prisoners through the ICRC’s Central Search Agency to the Ukrainian side. But these lists are incomplete, which is obvious. Information about the Ukrainian bureau is easy to find on the Internet, there is even a web page. On the other hand, there is practically no information about the Russian bureau, somewhere there is only a telephone number for the families of the prisoners, Bilkova said.