The Lugansk People’s Republic demands that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) pay attention the conditions in POW camps in Ukraine and ample evidence of violations of Geneva conventions by Kiev, LPR Acting Head Leonid Pasechnik said.
Pasechnik reminded that 23 LPR militiamen had been released from Ukrainian captivity and were returning home. “They will be able to hug their relatives in several hours,” he said.
“The guys have been through a lot. They unanimously note inhuman treating in Ukrainian captivity, moral and physical abuse, tortures and battery,” the LPR leader wrote on Telegram. “We again urge the International Committee of the Red Cross to consciensciously exercise its mandate! We demand that attention be paid to the conditions in POW camps in Ukrainian territory and numerous testimonies of Geneva conventions violations by Ukraine, and that Kiev be pressed into observing humanity, the fundamental principle of humanitarian law.”
He assured that medical assistance and rehabilitation would be provided to all the returning LPR militiamen.
The Russian Federation and Ukraine held prisoner swaps on November 23 and 24. Eighty-five Russian servicemen including militiamen from the LPR and DPR returned from Kiev-controlled territory. Ukraine also got back 85 people, mostly army personnel.
The LPR got back 24 militiamen (11, nine and four) in the prisoner swaps with Ukraine in October. On November 10, Pasechnik said that another 35 Donbass defenders (33 LPR militiamen and two LPR residents who had fought for the DPR) had returned from Ukrainian captivity.
LPR ombudsperson Viktoria Serdyukova said that Ukraine refused to recognize more than 100 of its servicemen held in the Lugansk People’s Republic.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation to protect Donbass residents from Ukrainian aggression. Prior to that, LPR and DPR Heads Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin asked the Russian leader to provide military assistance. On July 3, the LPR militia and Russian armed forces fully liberated the LPR territory from Ukrainian armed formations.
The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014. The peace talks that began soon thereafter failed to reach tangible results due to Kiev’s position to settle the conflict by force.
The Lugansk People’s Republic became a part of Russia on September 30, 2022 following the unification referendum.*i*v
