Geneva: The head of the U.N human rights mission in Ukraine said on Friday that Russia had blocked access to prisoners of war, adding that the U.N. had legible evidence that some of the soldiers had been subjected to grievous torture and ill-treatment which could amount to war crimes.
Matilda Bogner spoke to reporters in a Geneva news briefing that U.N. monitors had unimpeded access to Ukrainian facilities and had documented proofs of prison torture and ill-treatment of POWS by Ukraine, which could also amount to war crimes.
“The Russian Federation has not provided access to prisoners of war held on its territory or in territory under its occupation…,” Bogner said.
“This is all the more worrying since we have documented that prisoners of war in the power of the Russian Federation and held by the Russian Federation’s armed forces or by affiliated armed groups have suffered torture and ill-treatment.”
“In terms of the treatment of prisoners of war, certainly some of the issues could rise to be war crimes – issues of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners of war,” she said in response to a question about the Russian-held prisoners.
In late August, three Ukrainian troops who claimed they were taken captive by Russia before being released, accused their captors of torturing and using psychological mistreatment as a tool of debilitation.
The soldiers, who were part of a group fighting for weeks from a sizeable steelwork in the southern port of Mariupol, claimed in a Kyiv news conference that their captors became perpetrators of war crimes.
One of the captives, Vladyslav Zhaivoronok, was reported saying, ”The guys who were there were tortured. Some had needles inserted into their wounds, some were tortured with water, some received inadequate treatment.”
Ukrainian prisoners have also reported that their comrades are being subject to an ironic “welcoming process” whereby they are forced to walk or run between rows of Russian guards who take turns to inflict severe beatings on them as they enter the facilities, Bogner added.
Her team also received reports about Ukrainian POWs being ill-treated to the extent that most of them were down with infectious diseases like hepatitis A and tuberculosis in a penal colony in Olenivka.
At the same briefing, she also urged Russia to release on humanitarian grounds four pregnant prisoners of war being held in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine.
The Kremlin has consistently denied all such accusations of any possible war crimes being committed by Russian troops on the battlefronts.
Russia’s catchphrase for this war with Ukraine is “special military operation” that was launched by President Putin back in late February, to disarm the country, protect Russian-speaking minorities and remove far-right nationalists it deems a threat to Russia’s security.
Ukraine and its Western allies have noted this as a bogus excuse for an unprovoked war of aggression and that Ukraine poses no potential threats.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he could not comment on the U.N. statement because Russian authorities did not have enough information. “We do not know who approached the military and whether they did,” he told a news briefing.
Even Ukraine’s General Staff did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kyiv has previously said it checks all information regarding the treatment of POWs and will investigate any violations and take appropriate legal action.
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