Since February 2022, at least 184 Ukrainians have died in Russian captivity – Coordination Headquarters

From February 24, 2022 to the end of October 2024, 184 bodies of Ukrainians killed in captivity were returned to Ukraine, including 169 military personnel and 15 civilians, the Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIPL) reported on December 23 with reference to the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War .

At the same time, the media team assumes that the number of dead prisoners is much higher.

As the MIPL notes, since February 24, 2022, they have documented the testimony of 122 defenders of Ukraine who were in Russian captivity. The collected testimonies refer to systematic torture, isolation from the outside world, and denial of proper medical care. As a result, Ukrainian prisoners lose critical weight and suffer severe injuries. MIPL documenters also collected a lot of testimonies about the deaths of prisoners of war in places of detention. Most of them are caused by torture.

On October 15, Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin called the killing of Ukrainian servicemen in captivity a purposeful policy of the Russian Federation.

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Reports of murders, torture and ill-treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war are regularly reported. In general, Ukrainian law enforcement agencies have information about the murder of at least 93 Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian soldiers, reported on October 4, the representative of the OGP, Yuriy Belousov.

According to him, 80% of cases of executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war were recorded in 2024, but the trend began to appear in November 2023, when “changes took place in the attitude of Russian servicemen towards our prisoners of war for the worse.”