Prisoners of war from Ukraine’s ‘Azov regiment’ are on trial in Russia.
Eight women are among the 22 Ukrainian POWs accused by Russia of belonging to a “terrorist group.”
More than 20 Ukrainian troops who were captured during the months-long fight to protect Mariupol from Moscow’s forces have gone on trial in southern Russia.
The kidnapped soldiers were members of the Azov regiment, an elite Ukrainian armed forces unit that fought Russian troops for months in Mariupol, a seaport on the Sea of Azov.
After a three-month war in which much of Mariupol was destroyed, the surviving Ukrainian troops, who had bunkered within a massive steel plant, surrendered to Russian forces in May 2022.
The court in Russia’s southern Rostov-on-Don began hearing cases against Azov members on Wednesday, a military force that Russia has branded as a “terrorist group.”
The Azov Regiment, a former volunteer unit with far-right roots that was officially incorporated into Ukraine’s army, was declared a “terrorist” group by Russia’s Supreme Court in August of last year.
The verdict by Russia’s Supreme Court allows for lengthy jail sentences for Azov members who have been charged by Russian authorities of harbouring neo-Nazi and white supremacist beliefs.
Eight of the 22 defendants on trial are women. Photographs obtained inside the courthouse on Wednesday showed the Ukrainian troops, who were pale and emaciated, with their heads shaved close, sat behind a glass panel.
The defendants are accused of being members of a terrorist group and participating in actions to destabilise the Russia-backed authorities in the Donetsk area. If convicted, they risk jail terms ranging from 15 years to life.
According to the Red Cross, it has visited 1,500 prisoners of war on both sides of the conflict.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), such visits are critical for inspecting custody facilities, passing information between inmates and loved ones, and distributing sanitary products.
So far, the ICRC and its allies have carried around 2,500 personal letters between POWs and their families in the Ukraine crisis and assisted approximately 5,500 families in obtaining information on the fate of their loved ones in the fight.
“The impact is… immeasurable for the prisoners of war and their families who have been able to share news,” Ariane Bauer, ICRC’s regional director for Europe and Central Asia, told reporters.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused the Red Cross of failing to exert sufficient pressure on Russian soldiers to provide access to Ukrainian servicemen seized by Russian forces.
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