POW's relatives call on UN to use existing tools to investigate terrorist attack on Olenivka
Photo: t.me/inapalm
Relatives of Ukrainian prisoners of war called on the UN to use existing and urgent means to investigate the terrorist attack in Olenivka.
They stated this at a briefing, Ukrinform reports.
Natalia Zarytska, the wife of the captured Azov regiment member, the head of the NGO Women of Steel, on behalf of all the relatives of the prisoners of war, said: "We call on the UN to use really existing and urgent means to investigate the terrorist attack in Olenivka, as well as to force russia to comply with the norms of international humanitarian law. Today, russia doesn't comply with any norms of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War."
Zarytska recalled that 25 days after the tragedy in Olenivka, on August 22, the UN created a group to investigate the terrorist attack in this colony. The UN Secretary-General announced that he decided to send a mission to identify and establish the facts of the tragedy in Olenivka. But the representative of the UN Secretary-General said that the commission cannot yet start an investigation, as the situation at the scene remains dangerous for the visit of UN representatives.
"It is difficult to evaluate this statement. But we understand that creating a commission without access to the crime scene will not help to achieve justice for the Ukrainian defenders. They, while in captivity, were treacherously killed and wounded. This is a flagrant violation of all international agreements and guarantees," the wife of the Azov member remarked.
She emphasized the fact that even a powerful UN mission cannot get to the place of the public execution of prisoners of war, just as one of the oldest international organizations, ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), cannot get there, shows that "our prisoners of war are in mortal danger."
"If the world is afraid to recognize the real state of affairs and does not stop the evil of terrorism in its worst manifestation, we should expect even more terrible and bloodier mass crimes and brutal massacres… We demand justice and the prosecution of the keeper of our prisoners of war–the russian federation," Zarytska stressed.
She was supported by lawyer Anna Kalinchuk, who accompanied some prisoners of war, including defenders of Mariupol's Azovstal plant.
She again emphasized that there was a Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, and the russian federation was a party to this convention.
"Accordingly, the ICRC has the right to ask the government of the russian federation what exactly the russian federation is doing to comply with the terms of this convention. And suppose it does not comply with the terms of this convention. In that case, the ICRC and the UN have the opportunity to punish the russian federation for non-compliance with the norms," the lawyer concluded.
Reference
On the night of July 29, a powerful explosion occurred on the territory of the former correctional colony No. 210 of Olenivka, in the temporarily occupied territory of the Donetsk region, in the building in which Ukrainian prisoners of war of the Azov regiment were kept. Many prisoners of war died and were seriously injured.
According to Ukrainian intelligence, the murder of Ukrainian prisoners in Olenivka was committed by mercenaries from the Wagner Group private military company.
Forty days have passed since the terrorist attack in Olenivka, where Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed and wounded. Still, the civilized world has not yet reacted appropriately to this crime. Relatives of prisoners of war do not know anything about their relatives.
