The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) published a report on Russiaʼs arbitrary detention of Ukrainian civilians. In February 2024, delegations from 45 participating states launched the Moscow Mechanism, which was used to conduct research for the report.
The report states that the illegal deprivation of liberty of Ukrainian civilians began in the annexed Crimea in the spring of 2014 and spread to the Russian-occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, this practice has become widespread in all territories temporarily occupied by the Russians.
The number of Ukrainian civilians held hostage by Russia is "large and can be measured in the thousands", although it is still impossible to establish the exact number of hostages.
The report adds that the Ukrainian hostages were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, sexual violence. And it was systematic. Ukrainians were deprived of contact with the outside world, they were denied fundamental guarantees of a fair trial during criminal prosecution, and they were not provided with medical assistance.
The mission established that detained Ukrainian civilians died due to torture and other forms of ill-treatment. There were also deaths due to health problems in prisons. Crimean political prisoners were sent for compulsory psychiatric examination.
"The mission concludes that the extrajudicial killings of Ukrainian civilians imprisoned by the Russian authorities, as well as the failure to properly investigate allegations of such killings, constitute a serious violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law and may constitute a war crime and a crime against humanity," they write. in the report.
The participating countries of the Moscow Mechanism of the OSCE called on Russia to immediately stop the practice of arbitrary deprivation of liberty of Ukrainian civilians and to release all detainees, as recommended by the OSCE Mission.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, welcomed the report of the Moscow Mechanism of the OSCE and expressed gratitude for the fact that the OSCE paid attention to this issue.
"The document will become an important element in the work of national and international judicial bodies aimed at identifying specific people who should bear criminal responsibility," he emphasized.
- As of December 2023, Ukraine had official confirmation that Russia captured 28,000 Ukrainian civilians and deported 19,540 Ukrainian children.