Minister for Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons of Ukraine Vadym CHERNYSH:

“Ukraine considers Russian military’s attack on the Navy ship in the Kerch Strait as an international armed conflict”

The Minister noted that 24 Ukrainian servicemen held by the Russian Armed Forces, 6 of whom wounded, are prisoners of war, in relation to which Russian Federation is obliged to implement the rules of the Geneva Conventions*.

The Russian Federation, as a state ratifying the relevant conventions, is obliged:

– to treat the prisoners of war with dignity, to ensure humane treatment and respect

– not to use violence to obtain information from prisoners of war

– not to separate or transfer to different places of detention prisoners of war who serve together

– to provide prisoners of war with food and drinking water, as well as necessary clothing

– to provide prisoners of war with clothes, linen and footwear in sufficient quantity, taking into account weather conditions

– to provide prisoners of war with uniforms, if they meet the weather conditions

– not to remove all items and items of personal use, with the exception of weapons

– to provide prisoners of war with appropriate medical assistance free of charge

– to ensure decent conditions for prisoners of war in places of detention, in particular in protected, dry, warm, illuminated areas on the land.

The minister added that Ukraine requires the creation by Russian Federation, as stipulated by the Geneva Conventions, Prisoners of War Information Bureau, which should regularly provide information on the situation with the prisoners of war, including all cases of displacement, dismissal, hospitalization, etc.

An urgent meeting with international humanitarian organizations to determine ways to help Ukrainian prisoners of war will be held today in MTOT.

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* The Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, 1949, and the Geneva Convention on the Improvement of the Loneliness of the Wounded, Sick, and Shipwrecked Persons of the Armed Forces at Sea 1949