Russian POWs no longer allowed to call relatives, ombudsman says

Russian prisoners of war (POWs) held in Ukrainian camps are no longer allowed to make phone calls to their relatives, Ukraine's Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets announced on national television on Sept. 7.

Lubinets said that the ban does not violate the Geneva Conventions, as Russian POWs can still send written letters to their families.

"There were many discussions about the possibility for Russian POWs to call their relatives in the Russian Federation... As of now, we have been informed that Russians still have the ability to write letters, but they no longer have the right to make phone calls," Lubinets said.

Earlier in March, the petition calling to ban phone calls for Russian POWs received the needed 25,000 signatures. However, the Ukrainian parliament rejected the proposal back then, saying that phone calls "serve an important informative function, providing objective information to Russians that they should not be afraid to surrender."

Russian soldiers who have surrendered or have been captured in Ukraine are kept in four POW camps. Conditions there adhere to international laws, particularly the Geneva Conventions, according to Lubinets.

Multiple reports and witnesses show that Ukrainian POWs in Russia are most often kept in horrible conditions, subject to torture, beatings, and starvation.

However, Lubinets latest address comes amid the recent increasing number of Russia’s violating the rights of Ukrainian POWs.

On Sept. 6, Lubinets appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations in response to a video that allegedly shows the execution of a Ukrainian POW by Russia.

The video, which is circulating on social media, was published by Ukraine's military intelligence's "I Want to Live" project. It is unknown when and where it was filmed.

The footage purportedly shows a Russian soldier who asks a Ukrainian soldier if he wants to "say the last word, pray before dying," and then shoots him with a rifle three times. The moment of the shooting is blurred.

The ombudsman also made a similar appeal in August over a video of Russian troops allegedly displaying the head of a decapitated Ukrainian soldier.

The video surfaced on social media shows a man in Russian military fatigues with a covered face with what appears to be a severed head put upon a spike in the background.

As of March 2024, Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office collected pretrial information on over 128,000 victims of war crimes. The prosecutors said that they are investigating cases of at least 54 Ukrainian POWs being executed by Russia. More cases have likely appeared since then.

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Halfway down a narrow corridor painted all in gray, the guard wrestles with a bulky lock to gain entry to the prison cell. Inside are around twenty young men, sitting on a criss-crossing pattern of metal bunk beds. In the corner of the room, plastic cups and books are stacked

The Kyiv IndependentFrancis Farrell