More than 100 servicemen of the Lugansk People’s Republic militia who have returned from Ukrainian captivity were physically abused in Ukrainian captivity, LPR ombudsperson Viktoria Serdyukova said at a press briefing at the Lugansk Media Center.
Over 150 LPR servicemen have returned from Ukrainian captivity since the beginning of the special military operation in February, Serdyukova said.
“More than 100 of them said that they had been physically abused. “Of course, all the related materials and information were sent to investigation units,” she said.
Earlier, Serdyukova said that the Republic would pass the information on torture and abuse of captive LPR servicemen in Ukrainian territory to international organizations.
LPR Acting Head Leonid Pasechnik demanded that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) pay attention the conditions in which prisoner-of-war are held in Ukraine and ample evidence of violations of Geneva conventions by Ukraine.
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. The LPR militia and Russian armed forces fully liberated the LPR territory from Ukrainian armed formations on July 3.
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*ie
