After two prisoner exchanges between Ukraine and Russia since Kremlin despot Vladimir Putin on Feb. 24 ordered a renewed invasion of the country, signs of torture and maltreatment of returning Ukrainian soldiers have allegedly surfaced.
Ukrainian human rights ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova on April 4 said on her Telegram channel that “many men have frostbitten limbs” after occupying Russian forces released them.
The first and second prisoner swaps took place on March 1 and March 24, respectively.
Denisova said the former Ukrainian prisoners were held captive in basements, denied food and forced to remove their uniforms.
The Kyiv Post couldn’t independently verify her allegations.
“Russia flagrantly violates the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War. These facts were confirmed during the last liberation of Ukrainian citizens from enemy captivity,” Denisova wrote.
Ukrainian border guards, one of whom famously uttered curse words at a Russian warship demanding their surrender on Snake Island on the Black Sea, were “used by local [Russian] reporters for propaganda purposes,” she said.
Ukrainian servicemen are released from Russian captivity on March 24. (The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine)
Once the island was seized, Russia held the surviving border guards captive in minus 20-degree Celsius weather, Denisova said.
Ukraine’s parliament on March 24 announced that 11 Russian sailors the country had rescued from a sunken ship were exchanged for 19 Ukrainian prisoners.
Amid the renewed Russian invasion, Denisova has also accused Moscow of deporting more than 400,000 Ukrainian civilians, including 84,000 children, to Russia.
