The Story Behind Prisoners In the Ukraine Conflict
Hromadske International Sunday Show Examines The State Of Captured Soldiers On Both Sides Of The Conflict
The Sunday Show is the flagship TV-show produced by the Hromadske International team from its global headquarters in Kyiv, Ukraine. This is the only prime-time TV program explaining the Eastern European geopolitical storm in English.
This week:
anchored by Natalya Gumenyuk and Ian Bateson
produced by Isobel Koshiw, Stephen Gellner and Maria Zhdanova
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The rights of prisoners captured in this conflict are once again publicly debated as Ukrainian forces have captured two alleged Russian Special Forces officers. Does this proof of Russian involvement mean that these prisoners are prisoners of war? What rights do these soldiers have in a war that is not officially called a war? As the conflict drags on we are faced with more questions than answers, although we are starting to get a clearer picture of what happens to prisoners taken on both sides of this conflict.
Captured Russian Special Forces Will Be Tried As ‘Terrorists’ Not Prisoners Of War
“Special forces never take documents when they go to attack the other side. They don’t have any IDs,” said Ruslan Kavatsiuk advisor to the chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces of the two Russian Special Forces operatives captured in Ukraine. According to Kavatsiuk the men had in their possession weapons which are only issued to Russian Special Forces operatives and are not available in Ukraine.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, the two officers were captured in Shchastia, Luhansk region, by the Ukrainian 192nd Brigade. A video was then released by Ukrainian MP Borys Filatov on 17 May, 2015 of one of the officers telling his Ukrainian interrogators he was part of a 14-member Russian special forces spying mission in Ukraine.
Alex Alexandrovich — one of those captured, was from Kirov region; 1793 km from Shchastya — where he was captured.
Though President Poroshenko told the BBC in an interview that the Ukrainian forces have captured around 80 Russian soldiers, Kavatsiuk declined to comment on an exact number, stating only that the it was in the “dozens”.
Kavatsiuk told Hromadske that because Ukraine has not officially declared a state of war, these captured men will be treated as terrorists and not treated as prisoners of war.
Reaction in the pro-government Russian press to the capture of the two Russian Special Forces officers in Ukraine has been very limited, according to Ivan Yakovina, a Russian Journalist and Editor at Novoye Vremya.
However, the few remaining independent media outlets have been extensively reporting the incident and they say that the biggest problem for the Russian government right now is the waning loyalty of the Russian army. The Russian military are reportedly very unhappy with the situation of fighting in a war and not having it recognized, being buried in secret and Russian government refusing to come to their aid if captured.
“Regardless of them being tried as criminals, they are protected by the Geneva Convention,” Krassimir Yankov, Amnesty International Researcher on Ukraine said of the two Russian Special Forces captured in Ukraine. Yankov spoke to Hromadske along with Tanya Mazur, Director of Amnesty International Ukraine.
Mazur confirmed that an Amnesty International media representative had visited the soldiers in hospital and the conditions were good. However she could not confirm whether they had been ill treated as she did not have the full picture.
The fact that journalists and the Ukrainian authorities showed the video of the captured soldiers was a violation of their personal dignity under the Geneva Convention, according to Yankov, albeit a “very mild violation”.
Torture and Killing of Prisoners in Eastern Ukraine
Amnesty International has been focusing on the tragedies occurring behind the scenes of battle in Eastern Ukraine, where captured soldiers have been humiliated, degraded, tortured and killed. Their current research has been articulated in a recent report indicating violations committed by both sides, although the majority were perpetrated by separatist forces. This report comes as two captured Russian officers were shown on television, sparking an outcry that this constituted a violation of the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war. Hromadske International spoke to Krassimir Yankov, Amnesty International Researcher on Ukraine and Tanya Mazur, Director of Amnesty International Ukraine about the report:
According to Amnesty International, chances for gross mistreatment are much higher for soldiers captured by groups outside governing forces on both sides of the conflict.
Yurii Sova, a soldier of the 80th Airmobile Regiment, recounts the story of he and his fellow soldiers captured by separatist forces. These testimonies begin to shed light on the dark ordeal that many captured Ukrainian soldiers go through; marked by abuse, beatings, torture and in all too frequent cases: death.
A recent Amnesty report published on 22 May,2015 on abuse of prisoners of war in the Ukraine conflict found that the majority of those captured on the separatists side are soldiers or volunteer fighters. Conversely the majority captured on the Ukrainian side are civilians or people assisting or supporting. Read the report:
The report said that most of the abuse happens before those captured are sent to a designated place. On the Ukrainian side this tends to occur when soldiers or civilians are unlawfully detained by volunteer battalions who are not under the control of the Ukrainian authorities — most prominent of these are the Right Sektor Battalions. However they found 8 cases of Ukrainian soldiers executed in captivity by separatist forces.
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