“Relatives of Kremlin prisoners and missing persons, as well as activists of the Polish-Ukrainian community “Wspólnie PoMoc” came to the headquarters of the Red Cross”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
Relatives of Kremlin prisoners and missing persons, as well as activists of the Polish-Ukrainian community “Wspólnie PoMoc” came to the head office of the Red Cross to once again call on the organization to fulfill the tasks assigned to it – to search for people, confirm their stay in captivity and check the conditions of detention.
“The Red Cross should be a guarantor of human rights and freedoms, but unfortunately, it is not. The organization still has not provided complete information about the condition of our prisoners of war and has not ensured proper monitoring of their detention conditions. We ask the Red Cross to hear our voices and take real action to protect the rights of our prisoners of war,” Kateryna Chelyadina, one of the organizers of the action, told RFE/RL.
People held placards with the inscriptions “Red Cross – protects the rights of terrorists”, “Free Azov” and “Silence kills”. Relatives of prisoners of war and servicemen who are considered missing took part in the rally.
Olesya Bogdanova came to the Red Cross representative office with a flag with a photo of her father, Igor Bogdanov. The woman demands that the organization ensure the right of relatives of prisoners to correspondence. He says that “this is extremely important for maintaining the morale of the prisoners of the Kremlin, because they will know that they are fighting for them and that they are waiting for them at home.”
Olesya Bogdanova, daughter of POW marine Igor Bogdanov, at a memorial event in support of Ukrainian prisoners of war near the Red Cross office in Warsaw, Poland, November 9, 2024
“My father stood up for the defense of Ukraine since 2014. At the time of the full-scale invasion, he was already in Mariupol, as part of the 501st Marine Corps Battalion. He was captured on April 4, 2022, together with his brothers in Mariupol. The only thing I know about my father is that he is confirmed by the International Committee of the Red Cross, but for almost 3 years of his captivity, I never received any news. For all my requests to provide me with information about my father’s health, I received nothing,” says Bohdanova.
The woman learned from the soldier who was released during the last exchange that “doctors came to my father several times, and prisoners are subjected to torture and suffer from tuberculosis en masse.”
“My father is in a colony in Mordovia. He is now 53 years old. I don’t know if he had any injuries. I want an answer about my father’s health, I want a clear understanding that I can not only write a letter, but be sure that it will arrive and my father will be able to write back to me,” says the daughter of a captured marine.
Radion is awaiting the release of his brother, marine Myroslav Chornomor, from captivity: “He was taken prisoner on April 12, 2022, from the Ilyich factory. They were given an order and surrendered, in return they were promised a quick return from captivity, but the promises were not fulfilled. Now he is in Donetsk region, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, to which Ukraine replied that we do not exchange such people. With the help of a Russian lawyer, an appeal was filed, now we are waiting for the verdict.”
Radion Chornomor – the brother of the captured marine Myroslav Chornomor at the memorial event in support of Ukrainian prisoners of war near the Red Cross office
In order to reach the Red Cross and force it to act, the activists plan to start a mass letter-writing campaign on November 19, the thousandth day of the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Over the course of three weeks, they plan to collect more than 10,000 letters, bring them to the Red Cross office with a demand to hand them over to the Kremlin prisoners.