ICRC reacts after journalists report POW rights violations by Russian Red Cross operatives

That’s according to a report by RFE/RL's Crimea.Realities project, referring to Kremlin Leaks, Ukrinform reports.

Journalists cite the case of Ukrainian POW Orest Hrytsiuk, who was held in a Horlivka colony (temporarily occupied area) from October 2022 to April 2023. According to the man, who has since been released, "Russian officials from the Red Cross visited the colony in the spring of 2023. Hrytsiuk said two persons, whom the shift chief referred to as "Red Cross representatives ", were present at meal time.

“They would give us very little time to eat, and I hated myself for the way I ate... We were forced to eat very quickly, and food was too hot. Stuff was splattering everywhere. And those two, dressed as regular civilians, were walking along the aisle, and one of them said: ‘Oh, look they eat well, those pigs, Ukrainian pigs. Come on, eat up, Russia loves and cares for you,’” Hrytsiuk recollected.

According to the former POW, these two had "full carte blanche to walk around the dining area, to be on the courtyard, to order songs (which prisoners were forced to sing, - ed.)... they felt quite comfortable there, had a good time."

After the meal, the prisoners were taken to the parade ground and forced to sing Soviet-era military songs altogether. At the same time, the person who labeled prisoners in the canteen “pigs” took a selfie on his phone camera. He did it with the captives on his background, to whom the man "shouted something in their ear and shook his fist above their heads, slapped captives on their back and shoulders so hard they swayed." "He pointed the camera at himself and held out a victory sign – he was just having the time of his life, it was all a big show for him," said the former prisoner of war.

Commenting on the allegations, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said they believe Orest Hrytsiuk incorrectly identified the persons he mentioned as representatives of the Red Cross. The representative of the ICRC in Ukraine, Achille Despres, said the ICRC never reported that the colony where Ukrainian POWs were held was visited by the RSC employees. When asked who else could have come to the colony while posing as such, speaking in Russian and abusing Ukrainian prisoners of war, Despres replied he had no clue in this regard and that he had no reason to believe that the Russian Red Cross was involved.

Ariana Bauer, ICRC’s chief for Europea and Central Asia operations, assured that there were no employees of the Russian Red Cross deployed in Ukrainian territories.

The authors of the investigation point out that the Russian Red Cross "prefers to remain silent about its work on occupied Ukrainian territories – and may even use a kind of proxy organization to this end." However, they also operate under the Red Cross brand, referring to themselves as the "Donetsk Red Cross" or "Regional Public Organization Red Cross Society in the Luhansk People's Republic."

According to Bauer, the international organization remains in dialogue with the Russian authorities regarding the format of work in the Russian Federation. When asked directly by journalists whether the International Committee of the Red Cross understands that openly pro-Kremlin organizations can completely oust the ICRC from Russia and from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, Bauer answered in the negative.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War announced that Russia had launched another disinformation campaign across social media platforms by circulating lists of POWs that Ukraine allegedly refuses to swap for the Russians.