Russia is sending Ukrainian prisoners of war to the front lines in their country to fight alongside Russian troops in the war against Ukraine, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
This news agency reported on Tuesday that the soldiers swore allegiance to Russia when they joined the battalion, which entered service last month.
The Associated Press (AP) said Wednesday it could not immediately confirm the authenticity of the report or videos released by the news agency, or whether the POWs were forced to carry out their actions.
Ukrainian military and human rights officials as well as Russia’s Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to AP’s requests for comment.
Experts warned that such actions would be a clear violation of the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war, which prohibit them from being exposed to combat or from working in unsanitary or dangerous conditions – whether under duress or otherwise.
“The Russian authorities may claim that they recruit them on a voluntary basis, but it is difficult to imagine a scenario in which a prisoner of war’s decision could really be made voluntarily, given the situation of coercive detention.”said Yulia Gorbunova, senior Ukraine researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Nick Reynolds, a war researcher at the Royal United Services Institute in London, added that “the whole scenario is fraught with the possibility of coercion.”
A prisoner of war, he emphasized, does not have “an enormous capacity for freedom of choice” and is in a “very difficult situation.”
A video from RIA Novosti showed Ukrainians pledging allegiance to Russia, carrying automatic weapons and dressing in military uniforms to fight in a battalion named after medieval nobleman Bogdan Khmelnitsky, who was considered a national hero in Russia was seen as having brought parts of Ukraine under his control. the 15th century.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in Washington emphasized that there have been previous reports asking Ukrainian POWs to ‘volunteer’ for the battalion. These were housed in the Olenivka prison, which exploded in July 2022.
Moscow accused Ukraine of destroying the prison in the country’s east with a missile, but Kiev blamed Moscow for the explosion in order to cover up the abuse and killing of prisoners of war.
Russia has also used prisoners from its own prisons to fight in Ukraine in exchange for reduced sentences if they survive.
The country is also trying to strengthen its troops with a “recruitment campaign in occupied Ukraine,” ISW’s Karolina Hird pointed out.
By mobilizing Ukrainian prisoners of war, using Russian convicts and recruiting Ukrainians living in occupied territories, Russia is increasing its combat power “without having to risk the social implications of carrying out a general mobilization,” Hird added.
RIA Novosti reported that the Ukrainians will operate as part of another unit in eastern Ukraine, and the unit’s website said it has around 7,000 fighters.
Given the unit’s location, Hird said he expected Ukrainian POWs to be sent to the front lines in the Donetsk and Zaporijia regions.
Source: DN
