Russia asks the ICRC for access to Russian soldiers captured in Ukraine as part of the invasion

MADRID, 23 May. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Russian authorities have demanded from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) information about the Russian soldiers captured by the Ukrainian forces and access to visits to them, within the framework of the war unleashed on February 24 by order of the Russian president , Vladimir Putin.

The Russian Human Rights Commissioner, Tatiana Moskalkova, has asked the ICRC president, Peter Maurer, for "information on Russian prisoners of war" and to help her organization so that she or her representatives can visit them, according to a message published on your account on Telegram.

"I hope that my request is not ignored. It would be bitter to understand that an organization as respected as the ICRC forgets the universal principles of humanity, like many other international structures, and is guided by double standards regarding our prisoners," he said.

Moskalkova has emphasized the validity of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War and has stated that "for decades, the most authoritative control over respect for it has been carried out by the ICRC." "Often, they are the last hope of the relatives of those captured," she explained.

"Russia understands the meaning and objectives of the work of the Red Cross and gives its representatives all possible support," he stressed, before stressing that "between May 17 and 20, the ICRC freely visited military personnel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Azov Battalion that left the Azovstal plant in Mariupol after surrendering to the Army".

"This will allow the ICRC to monitor the fate of the prisoners, inform their families about their condition and monitor compliance with international standards in relation to them," said Moskalkova, who emphasized that she herself visited a unit of the Black Sea Fleet where there were Ukrainian prisoners of war and demanded that "they be given everything they need and their rights be guaranteed".

Therefore, Moskalkova has lamented that "to date, despite repeated appeals, no information has been received about the Russian prisoners." "Neither we nor their relatives know who the ICRC visited in Ukraine or the psychological or physical state in which our people find themselves," she has settled.