40 days since Olenivka tragedy: Russia still not letting international experts in, relatives of POWs release statement

TUESDAY, 6 SEPTEMBER, 2022, 14:21

Relatives of defenders of Mariupol state the powerlessness of international organisations in the real usage of humanitarian law, and demand real steps to be taken to release Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) illegally held by the Russian Federation.

Source: Nataliia Zarytska, wife of a POW from Olenivka penal colony, head of the Women of Steel, the Council of Wives and Mothers of Defenders of Ukraine, at a briefing in Kyiv on 6 September 

Quote from Zarytska: "40 days [have passed since the Olenivka tragedy]. During this time, we have not received an answer to any questions: who died, who was injured, and what is the exact number of casualties and fatalities?

Despite international humanitarian law, representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were not allowed to visit the Ukrainian POWs. We can no longer bear to hear that the Russian Federation is blocking access to our prisoners.

The fact that the ICRC makes a statement from time to time that it can’t reach the camp in Olenivka is just [slowly] killing us…

Only 25 days after the tragedy, namely on 22 August, the United Nations (UN) created a group to investigate the terrorist attack in this prisoner’s camp. Secretary General of the UN [Antonio Guterres] announced that he had decided to send a mission to identify and establish the facts of the tragedy, but the representative of the Secretary General said that the commission couldn’t yet begin the investigation, as the situation at the scene remained dangerous for the representatives of the UN…

The fact that even a powerful UN mission can’t get to the place of public execution of prisoners of war for 40 days, just as one of the oldest international organisations, the ICRC, can’t get there, shows that our prisoners of war are in grave danger…

As of today, Russia has not implemented a single norm of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of POWs. We do not have any data on the whereabouts of our prisoners of war; we have no contact with them…

If the world is afraid to recognise the real state of affairs and does not stop the evil of terrorism in its manifestation in Olenivka, we should expect even more terrible and bloodier mass crimes. We demand justice and the prosecution of those who keep our prisoners of war, [which is] the Russian Federation."

Details: Zarytska stressed that the relatives demand a fair investigation of the terrorist attack in Olenivka, as well as an immediate exchange of prisoners of war and defenders of Mariupol, or their extraction to a third country.

Lawyer Anna Kalinchuk emphasised: the Russian Federation is a party to the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of POWs, and the ICRC has the right to ask questions to the Russian government regarding the implementation of norms of international humanitarian law. And if Russia does not comply with the terms of this convention, the ICRC and the UN have the opportunity to punish the aggressor country. Instead, according to Kalinchuk, the Russian Federation continues to sit at the same table with the civilised world and [no one] demands any reports from Russia. The country can use this time to falsify evidence in the case of the Olenivka tragedy.

Background:

• On 29 July, the Russian media reported that the shelling of the prison in Olenivka, Donetsk Oblast, had taken place. Russians held Ukrainian POWs there. Propagandists claimed that there were at least 53 fatalities.
• The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine denied the accusations of the Russian Federation that the attack was allegedly carried out by the Ukrainian forces. The General Staff also pointed out that the Russians tried to hide the torture and murder of prisoners.
• Intelligence agencies believe that the killing of Ukrainian prisoners in Olenivka was organised by the Wagner PMC [private military group] mercenaries under the personal orders coming from the group’s handler Yevgeny Prigozhin, without coordinating it with the superiors at the Russian Ministry of Defence.
• The SSU (Security Service of Ukraine) intercepted telephone conversations, in which the occupiers confirmed that Russian troops are responsible for the explosion in the occupied Olenivka prison.
• Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andrii Kostin stated that, according to preliminary data from international experts, prisoners in the occupied Olenivka penal colony were killed with thermobaric weapons.

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