Ukraine welcomes OSCE findings on Russia’s abuse of POWs

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine welcomes the publication of the OSCE’s “Report on Possible Violations and Abuses of International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, Related to the Treatment of Ukrainian POWs by the Russian Federation”.

According to the statement by the Ministry, the report prepared by an independent mission of experts under the OSCE Moscow Mechanism is a comprehensive international document addressing systematic crimes by the aggressor state against Ukrainian POWs.

The report also highlights Russia’s refusal to cooperate with the OSCE independent expert mission as additional evidence of its responsibility for these crimes.

The mission found that Russia’s treatment of Ukrainian POWs is widespread and systematic, accompanied by consistent and deliberate actions targeting Ukraine’s defenders. These actions may constitute the war crime of “ill-treatment of prisoners of war” and the crime against humanity of “imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law.”

The report documents numerous serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights, including: massive and systematic use of torture, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, including sexual violence; arbitrary killings and executions of Ukrainian POWs, including upon the surrender; deliberate denial of adequate food, medical care, and basic conditions of detention, resulting in deaths in detention facilities;

The report also notes the use of POWs for propaganda purposes, physical and psychological coercion to cooperate, and so-called “trials” in violation of the Geneva Convention III.

The report’s findings can be used within the framework of national and international mechanisms for bringing war criminals of the aggressor state to justice.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry urges the international community to actively disseminate and use the mission’s findings and to consolidate efforts to stop Russia’s criminal practices against Ukrainian POWs and ensure their immediate exchange on an all for all principle.

“All those who ordered, organized, and carried out war crimes and crimes against humanity must be held accountable. Ukraine also calls on the international community to increase sanctions pressure on the Russian Federation in order to ensure justice,” the Ministry emphasized.

As previously reported, in January, Pablo de Greiff, a member of the UN independent international commission investigating Russian war crimes in Ukraine, told an informal UN Security Council session about torture of Ukrainian POWs in Russian prisons.