Ukrainians released from captivity report humiliation and inhumane conditions of detention. Among them are wounded with sepsis and amputations.
The occupiers poured water into the shoes of some of the captured men, forcing them to put on their shoes and lying in the cold facing the ground for three or four days, Human Rights Commissioner Lyudmila Denisova said on Facebook.
With frostbitten limbs, the prisoners were sent to russian camps, and then to the first Kursk pre-trial detention center. No medical care was provided.
"Ukrainians were dressed in the form of prisoners, cut their hair, tortured, forced to learn patriotic кussian songs and perform them for their supervisors. Interrogations took place two or three times a day, after which men were brutally beaten and later forced to sign documents they were treated well," Denisova said.
The occupiers decided to exchange the severely wounded Ukrainians with amputations and frostbite, but due to the lack of ambulances, they were transported for five hours on freight railway platforms. People were lying on the highway on stretchers.
"By taking hostages of civilians, the russian occupiers violate international humanitarian law, including Article 34 of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, 1949, which explicitly prohibits the unjustified detention of civilian hostages," Denisova said.
The eighth prisoner exchange took place yesterday during russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. 14 Ukrainians returned home: seven civilians and seven military, including a pregnant woman.
Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories Iryna Vereshchuk said that during the exchange of prisoners, the russian side tried to exchange the Ukrainian civilian population for prisoners of war, which is expressly prohibited by the Geneva Conventions.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, there are more than a thousand hostages in russia - including almost 500 women. They are in prisons and remand centers in Kursk, Bryansk, Ryazan, and Rostov.
Vereshchuk emphasized that russia refuses to return civilian women. According to her words, Kyiv even intends to refuse exchanges if there are no women on the list, otherwise they will simply not be saved.