'Admission of guilt' — Ukraine blasts Russia’s planned withdrawal from torture prevention convention
Russia’s decision to withdraw from the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture is effectively "an admission of guilt" and an attempt to evade accountability, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said on Aug. 27.
"Modern Russia is a land of lawlessness and the degradation of human dignity," the ministry's statement read.
"The decision to withdraw from the Convention for the Prevention of Torture only reinforces this reality and firmly places Russia among the countries where human life and dignity are worth nothing."
Russian war crimes and the torture of Ukrainian civilians and troops during the war in Ukraine have been broadly documented, despite Moscow being currently a signatory to the convention.
Earlier this week, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a resolution calling for Moscow to withdraw from the treaty.
The convention establishes a preventive mechanism allowing the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment to conduct regular and unannounced visits to detention facilities to assess conditions and treatment of detainees.
Russia has consistently undermined this mechanism by refusing to cooperate with the committee and barring its experts from entering the country, according to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.
"This is part of a broader pattern by the Russian Federation of blocking independent access — including repeated refusals to grant the International Committee of the Red Cross full access to detention facilities, particularly those holding prisoners of war (POWs)," the ministry said.
Last year, Ukraine's Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said that most Ukrainian POWs who were released had never been visited by the Red Cross representatives while in Russian captivity. According to Associated Press, more than 200 Ukrainian soldiers have died in Russian prisons since the beginning of the full-scale war.
Last month, Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office also said it had documented at least 273 Ukrainian POWs who had been executed by Russia during their captivity, a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.
Kyiv called for the immediate activation of international mechanisms to hold Russia accountable, urging to act "decisively and without delay."
Kateryna Denisova
