Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin issued a lengthy statement yesterday in which, among other things, he stressed that both the relevant UN agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross know what Russian forces are doing with respect to their treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war. Among the points he stressed is that Russia is making “painstaking efforts” to treat Ukrainian prisoners in the custody of Russian forces according to the requirements of the Geneva Conventions. “Close contacts have been established with the relevant United Nations agencies and the International Committee of the Red Cross to provide humanitarian assistance to the population living in the territories liberated from the Ukrainian Nazis and also to work with prisoners of war,” he said.
“On a regular weekly basis, meetings are held with representatives of international organisations, primarily the UN and the ICRC, to discuss the most pressing humanitarian issues on the Ukrainian direction,” Fomin added. “More than 40 such meetings have been held since February 2022.”
Fomin asserted that in April and May the Azovstal plant in Mariupol was successfully evacuated with the involvement of the UN and ICRC. “More than 3,000 people left Azovstal, including more than 2,400 servicemen of the Ukrainian armed forces and fighters from nationalist formations,” he said. “The operations were purely humanitarian in nature. Staff of international organisations confirmed the strict observance of international humanitarian law in their conduct.”
