Ukrainian POWs face torture, violence and execution in Russia

Physical and moral torture, sexual violence, illegal sentencing and violent execution — this is what Ukrainian prisoners of war are going through once in Russian captivity. 

Ukrainian prosecutor general Andriy Kostin says up to 90% of all returned POWs stated they have been subject to torture in Russian prisons, a stark violation of the third Geneva Convention, of which Moscow is a signatory.

Yet, Russia is “determined to ignore the rules of war,” Kostin said.

The third Geneva Convention — one of four treaties in total — sets out specific rules for the treatment of prisoners of war, stating that the POWs should be treated humanely, adequately housed and provided sufficient food, clothing and medical care.

According to it, humanitarian activities, including those of the International Red Cross (ICRC) or any other impartial humanitarian organisation that may be undertaken to protect and relieve prisoners of war, should not be hindered.

And although the ICRC says it has visited almost 3,500 POWs both in Ukraine and Russia, it admits that “to date the ICRC does not have full access to all POWs”.

Ukrainian soldiers who have returned from Russian captivity and the families of those still in Russian prisons all say they have no contact and no information with those held in Russia, meaning they do not even know if the POWs are alive.

The only way to get any information about Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia was to wait for the POWs exchanges, when either a soldier would come back home or if one of those who returned had more information about those staying in Russia, they told Euronews.

Serhii Rotchuk, Azov Brigade officer, combat medic and defender of Mariupol, spent one year in Russian captivity, where he was subject to torture, abuse, and physical and mental violence.

He told Euronews that he saw his fellow servicemen in Russian captivity being in a bad state in terms of health and morale.

“Almost all of them clearly have some kind of health problems. They are held in rather difficult conditions without proper medical support,” Rotchuk said.

“If they need medication or have certain diseases, they are held in rather difficult conditions and are constantly subjected to torture, bullying, physical or moral violence.”

Waiting for POWs to come home

Yevheniia Synelnyk has not heard from her brother Artem in two years. He is one of the Mariupol defenders who have become a symbol of Ukraine’s resistance with their fierce defence of the Azovstal steel plant during three months of the full-scale invasion when the port city was under siege.

She said the last thing she heard was that her brother had been transferred to a prison in Taganrog, a city in Russia’s Rostov region, where conditions for prisoners are said to be appalling.

She learned this from other POWs who met Artem while in captivity and then shared tidbits of information with her after being exchanged and returned to Ukraine. 

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Yevheniia is also a representative of the Association of Azovstal Defenders’ Families, created in June 2022, shortly after about 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers surrendered to Russia on the orders of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the siege of the Azovstal steel plant in May of that year. 

The association’s spokesperson, Marianna Khomeriki, told Euronews that the international organisations are not doing enough, and the families’ only hope is for Ukrainian forces to take Russian soldiers prisoners or “replenish the exchange fund by capturing occupiers”.

“We can use this fund to save the lives and health of our military who are captured by the Russians,” she explained.

Khomeriki noted that the Russian command “in general do not want to get their people back”.

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Moscow is especially reluctant to exchange Mariupol defenders, and they were only exceptionally included in a recent POWs swap in exchange for the Chechen Ramzan Kadyrov’s soldiers, taken prisoners since the beginning of the Kursk incursion. 

Kursk execution a sign of broader intent?

Meanwhile, Russian forces executed nine Ukrainian prisoners of war near the village of Zeleny Shlyakh in the Kursk region just last Thursday, Ukrainian open-source investigations have claimed.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War think tank analysed an image of the aftermath of the execution, saying that “it suggests that Russian forces disarmed, lined, stripped, and shot the Ukrainian POWs — a clear indication of the premeditated nature of the executions.”

The ISW says it has recently observed an increase in Moscow forces executing Ukrainian POWs throughout the theatre, adding that Russian commanding officers are likely writ large condoning, encouraging, or directly ordering them.

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Rotchuk says the Russian military is not making a secret of it. “They spoke directly about it, that they had an order, as they said, to either catch or not to deal with prisoners. This is almost a direct quote from their representative of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” he explained.

“The Russian propaganda is aimed at inciting hatred towards Ukrainians. It is a state policy to destroy everything that is not Russian. And if someone doesn’t want to, if something doesn’t want to be Russian, or someone doesn’t want to be Russian, to belong to Russia, they have to die.”

Azov Brigade, the victim of propaganda

The Azov Brigade has been specifically targeted by this narrative. 

Nestor Barchuk, the brigade’s legal advisor, points out that for ten years, Azov did not receive Western weapons and training due to alleged links to far-right groups. This consequently greatly reduced the unit’s potential, he says.

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In June, the US lifted the ban, saying a vetting process didn’t find any evidence of gross violations of human rights by the brigade. 

“Who knows, if this ban hadn’t existed for ten years, perhaps the battle for Mariupol would have been different, and perhaps the map of the war would look different now,” Barchuk told Euronews.

This hasn’t changed Moscow’s policy over Ukrainian POWs and specifically the Mariupol defenders. Around 900 Azov soldiers remain in Russian captivity, and some 100 have been given prison sentences for what Russian prosecutors label as “participation in terrorist organisation”.

Barchuk thinks this is a clear signal that Ukraine has to fight its way to liberating its imprisoned men and women.

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“The only way for Ukraine to bring back home all its defenders is to win the war,” he concluded.