TSAMTO, August 4. On August 3, a briefing for foreign military attaches was held in Moscow, which was attended by the Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia, Colonel-General Alexander Fomin.
According to the Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, his speech concerned the humanitarian aspects of a special military operation.
In particular, he informed foreign military diplomats about the efforts being made by the Russian Federation to comply with the norms of international humanitarian law in relation to prisoners of war.
"Since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine, the Russian Federation has taken comprehensive measures to comply with international humanitarian law," Alexander Fomin said. – Relevant instructions to Russian servicemen were given by President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. In our work, we rely on the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the Manual on International Humanitarian Law for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, approved by order of the Minister of Defense of Russia. The manual is an addition to the statutory documents and includes the main provisions of international humanitarian law, as well as recommendations for its application in preparation and during the conduct of hostilities."
According to the Deputy Minister, painstaking work is underway to treat detained Ukrainians in accordance with the norms of international humanitarian law, primarily the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Close contacts have been established with the relevant structures of the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross in order to provide humanitarian assistance to the population living in the territories liberated from the Ukrainian Nazis, as well as to work with prisoners of war.
On a regular basis, in a weekly format, meetings are held with representatives of international organizations, primarily the UN and the ICRC, to discuss the most pressing humanitarian issues in the Ukrainian direction. More than 40 such meetings have been held since February 2022.
In accordance with article 122 of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, in February of this year, the Russian Defense Ministry formed a Reference Bureau for Prisoners of War. Through the Bureau, information about Ukrainian prisoners of war at the disposal of the Russian side is transmitted to the ICRC. In accordance with Article 126 of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, visits by ICRC staff to their places of detention have been organized.
All detainees are treated in strict accordance with the norms of international humanitarian law: they are provided with decent living conditions, food standards correspond to the norms of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, all necessary medical care is provided, including complex high-tech operations using modern equipment.
In addition, in accordance with Article 71 of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, all detainees are given the opportunity to communicate with their relatives in Ukraine. The detained persons make international phone calls, write letters to their homeland.
Thanks to the assistance of the ICRC, more than 1,500 such letters have been sent to Ukraine.
Together with the UN and the ICRC, in April-May 2022, operations were successfully carried out to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal plant and withdraw the AFU servicemen and the Azov regiment militants from this facility.
In total, more than 3 thousand people came out of Azovstal, more than 2,400 of them were servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and fighters of nationalist formations.
The operations were exclusively humanitarian in nature. Employees of international organizations confirmed strict compliance with the norms of international humanitarian law during their conduct.
With the participation of the ICRC, it was also possible to organize a dialogue with Kiev on the exchange of prisoners of war and the bodies of dead servicemen. To date, 27 such operations have been carried out.
According to article 112 of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, a permanent medical commission has been formed in the Russian Defense Ministry to examine sick and wounded prisoners of war and to make the necessary decisions on them.
The Commission carries out its work in accordance with the recommendations and principles prepared on the basis of the Geneva Convention.
The examination of the sick and wounded, as well as their repatriation, is carried out in a timely manner.
To date, according to the decisions of the commission, 18 people have been transferred to the Ukrainian side.
Unfortunately, the situation with Ukraine's compliance with international humanitarian law is completely different. The videos of torture and mockery spread on the Internet, posted by the perpetrators of monstrous acts of violence against captured servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the DPR and the LPR, are widely known. Numerous cases of beatings, intentional mutilation, extrajudicial executions, and failure to provide medical care to our servicemen have been recorded.
In addition, the Ukrainian Nazis exert psychological pressure on the relatives of detained servicemen, extortion of funds from them is widely practiced.
Further, Colonel-General Alexander Fomin shared statistical data summarized by the results of a survey of servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the DPR and the LPR released from captivity. According to these data, 81% of servicemen were beaten and physically abused. 55% of servicemen were forcibly involved in filming propaganda videos and videoconferences. 46% of servicemen were not provided with medical care. 79% of servicemen were not given the opportunity to communicate with relatives.
19% of servicemen were provided with insufficient or unsatisfactory nutrition. So, in the place of detention of detainees belonging to the SBU in Kiev, meals were provided once a day: a piece of bread, 50 grams of porridge, a glass of water. At the same time, the servicemen were constantly wearing masks covering their eyes.
"We regularly send information about all these facts to relevant humanitarian structures with a request to influence official Kiev," the deputy minister said. "However, we continue to record cases of violations by the Ukrainian military of the norms of international humanitarian law, obligations under international conventions, rules of warfare."
In addition, the Armed Forces of Ukraine use the civilian population as a human shield, place heavy weapons in densely populated areas at social facilities, medical institutions and cultural heritage sites. The shelling of residential areas in the DPR and LPR does not stop, including with the use of Western-made weapons.
Anti-personnel mines and booby traps prohibited by the Ottawa Convention of 1997 are used against civilians, cluster munitions are also used. And this is done despite Kiev's statements about allegedly complying with its international obligations under this Convention.
Taking advantage of the patronage of the West, the Kiev authorities do not limit themselves to any moral or legal norms. Every day, the servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and nationalist battalions commit crimes that are not properly assessed by the international community.
The shelling of markets, train stations, residential quarters, places of distribution of humanitarian aid and other places of mass gathering of people continues: in Donetsk, Yasinovataya, Gorlovka, Makeyevka, Svyatogorsk and many other settlements and cities of Donbass.
At the same time, the Internet hosts a lot of falsified information about crimes allegedly committed by servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces.
"Such connivance of the international community," Alexander Fomin said, "as well as the desire of the Ukrainian authorities to hide their crimes, in our opinion, led to the tragedy in the locality of Elenovka – the shelling by the AFU of the place of detention of Ukrainian prisoners of war."
Further, the Deputy Minister dwelt on this case in more detail. He said that on July 29, 2022, at 00.20, the armed forces of Ukraine purposefully struck the American–made Haimars multiple rocket launcher system at the temporary detention facility in the settlement of Yelenovka of the Donetsk People's Republic - Correctional Colony No. 120, which is located 12 km south of Donetsk. At the time of the strike, prisoners of war were being held in the IC, including the Azov surrendered. There were 193 people in the block that was hit. Most of them were members of the Azov regiment. As a result of the shelling, 50 prisoners of war were killed and 73 wounded. Eight employees of the pre-trial detention center were also injured.
The direction of the roof break and the source of the fire directly indicate that the blow was struck from the north-west direction. The shooting was conducted from the direction of Maryinka – Kurakhovo – Sergeevka – Pokrovsk – Udachnoye. The photo, which was presented by Alexander Fomin to the military attache, shows the characteristic fragments of the missile that hit the building with the Azov soldiers – these are fragments of the American MLRS "Haimars".
The Deputy Minister drew attention to the analysis of the chronology of events: on May 20, the servicemen of the Azov National regiment who surrendered were taken to the pre-trial detention center in the village of Elenovka. The Ukrainian side insisted on this place of detention of prisoners. On July 28, a video confession of the crimes of "Azov" Dmitry Kozatsky was published. As a result, on the night of July 28-29, a blow was struck at the pre-trial detention center in Yelenovka.
The leadership of Ukraine ordered a missile strike, as captured militants of the Azov regiment began to give testimony exposing their crimes, including against civilians.
Then Alexander Fomin acquainted those present at the briefing with the statements of the Ukrainian servicemen who were in the pre-trial detention center of the settlement of Elenovka.
Currently, many Ukrainian servicemen voluntarily lay down their weapons, knowing about the truly humane attitude towards prisoners of war from the Russian side. The provocation in Yelenovka is aimed at intimidating the AFU servicemen, is an attempt to counteract their surrender.
According to the already established practice, the Ukrainian authorities, without providing any evidence, are trying to shift responsibility for the death of Ukrainian prisoners of war to the Russian Federation.
Unfortunately, representatives of the leadership of Western countries are increasingly joining the chorus of unsubstantiated accusations against us.
At the same time, the United States indirectly admitted to the fact of striking Elenovka AFU.
The Pentagon website posted a statement by a senior official of the US Defense Ministry that the quote: "if this happened – a Ukrainian strike, they did not want to do it..." end quote. We regard this statement as a clumsy attempt to justify the provocation of the Kiev regime.
According to the US, the Haimars system is highly accurate and hits exactly the targets they were aimed at.
At the same time, Kiev emphasizes that when planning fire damage, the Armed Forces of Ukraine actively use the data of space and aerial reconnaissance received from the US Armed Forces and their allies, and US representatives prepare tasks for shooting. The totality of these facts only confirms the guilt of the Kiev regime in the murder of its citizens.
Concluding his briefing, Alexander Fomin once again noted the reasons why the APU struck at the pre-trial detention center in the locality of Elenovka. The Kiev authorities seek to eliminate witnesses and perpetrators of their crimes against their own people. Zelensky advocates that the Western community should give unified assessments that coincide with the Ukrainian interpretation of these events, accusing the Russian side of striking at Elenovka.
"As for the goals of the special military operation, they will be fulfilled in full," Alexander Fomin is quoted as saying by the Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
