What fate for prisoners of war?
Whether Russian or Ukrainian, these fighters are protected by one of the Geneva Conventions on prisoners of war, remind human rights defenders and specialists.
As in any conflict, data from the field is often fragmented and difficult to verify independently. The number of prisoners of war is no exception. No figures have been provided at this stage.
On Mariupol, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported “3,826 prisoners”whose “2,439 Ukrainians taken prisoner during the surrender of Azovstal” and “1,387 Marines” previously taken prisoner. The ambassador in Moscow of the “people’s republic of Luhansk”, Rodion Miroshnik gave Thursday, according to the agency TASS, the figure of 8,000 Ukrainians prisoners for the two separatist territories, “and every day hundreds are added to it”.
On the Ukrainian side, no number of Russian prisoners has been communicated despite requests from AFP.
Regarding Azovstal, the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) reported that it had recorded “hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners of war”.
Regular army soldiers falling “in the power of the enemy” are considered as “prisoners of war” whose status is defined by IIIand Geneva Convention of 1949, which also applies in cases where war has not been officially declared. This status concerns “members of the armed forces or militiamen who are part of these armed forces”, says William Schabas, professor of international law at Middlesex University in London. These prisoners, he continues, have rights and must in particular be protected against any act of violence or intimidation, against insults and public curiosity.
However, according to NGOs, some of these rights have been violated since the beginning of the conflict. In March, Human Rights Watch called on Ukraine to stop portraying repentant Russian POWs in the media. kyiv’s initiative had also earned him a call to order from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). HRW also called on Kyiv to investigate potential “war crimes” towards Russian prisoners, following the broadcast of images appearing to show Ukrainian soldiers shooting them in the legs.
More recently, the NGO Amnesty International was moved by the fate reserved “to Ukrainian prisoners of war in Azovstal”featured in Russian media “in a dehumanizing way” like the “neo-Nazis”.
In this context, the registration process by the ICRC plays a key role, underlines Julia Grignon, researcher at the Institute for Strategic Research at the Military School (Irsem). “It’s a guarantee, it means that they won’t disappear, because we can then demand accountability. »
Having become common practice, the exchange of prisoners is not governed by international law and takes the form of an over-the-counter agreement. Since the beginning of the invasion, several exchanges of soldiers and civilians have already taken place between Ukrainians and Russians, without being systematically confirmed by the two parties.
- Can they be judged?
“Prisoners of war cannot be tried for the simple fact of having taken part in combatunderlines the French specialist. On the other hand, soldiers who allegedly committed crimes during the clashes can be prosecuted. »
In Ukraine, the first Russian soldier tried for war crimes since the start of the offensive was sentenced to life imprisonment Monday in kyiv for the murder of a civilian. On the Russian side, the authorities hinted that they would judge the fighters of the Azov regiment as “Nazi criminals”.
“It would not be in accordance with humanitarian law, we cannot label them “Nazis” or “terrorists”, they must be prosecuted for the acts they are suspected of having committed”according to M.me Grignon.
As for the members of the private Russian company Groupe Wagner, with whom Moscow denies any link, they can be considered prisoners of war if they are captured while being incorporated into the Russian forces. Otherwise, they are considered as civilians taking part in the hostilities and cannot benefit from this status, underline the specialists.