Today, there are 800 seriously wounded Ukrainian prisoners of war (POW) on the territory of Russia. In accordance with Article 110 of the Third Geneva Convention, they must be returned to Ukraine. This repatriation procedure provides for the return of severely wounded prisoners of war without any conditions and without reference to quantity.
According to the Geneva Convention, during an armed conflict, seriously wounded and sick must be sent home by belligerent states, certain categories of them — to neutral states. For example, wounded and sick, who are not likely to recover within one year.
Despite this, Russia continues to disregard international law and once again violates the Geneva Convention. The Kremlin is simply sabotaging the entire negotiation process for seriously wounded prisoners of war.
In addition, the facts of mass abuse and torture of Ukrainian prisoners by Russian soldiers are confirmed more and more. During interrogations, Ukrainian prisoners of war are put on their knees, hit with the butt of a machine gun on the head, toes, and open wounds, pliers are used, a wire is placed around their necks, and they are being strangled. In addition, they are tortured with electric current, beaten with a mallet and kicked, unknown drugs are injected into the body, after which the Ukrainian soldiers faint and lose their memory.
Therefore, a significant number of soldiers of the Armed Forces become disabled in Russian captivity. There is a video of a Ukrainian serviceman being tortured by Russian soldiers. The abuse of the prisoner of war took place on the territory of the Privilla sanatorium in the Luhansk region.
In the Olenivka correctional colony, the Russian occupiers used physical torture and beatings during interrogations of POWs. Russia has carried out an explosion in the colony (to which the international organizations concerned do not have access to this day) in order to hide the traces of inhuman abuse and murder of prisoners of war. It is known that 53 Ukrainian POWs died after the explosion in the prison at the end of July last year.
Therefore, more pressure should be put on the Russian regime as well as an increase in the supply of necessary weapons to Ukraine to defeat the Russian invader as the European community’s response to the sabotage of exchange and repatriation of severely wounded prisoners and mass torture.