Relatives of prisoners of war from the "Azov" regiment claim complete inaction by the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross in the matter of Ukrainian prisoners from "Azovstal".
“Radio Svoboda” (“Radio Liberty”) was told about this by Sandra Krotevych, a member of the Association of Families of Defenders of Azovstal, the sister of Azov Chief of Staff Bohdan Krotevych, who is being held captive by the Russians.
According to her, there are a lot of complaints against the UN and the Red Cross, because they "do not do anything at all." The Red Cross has not yet reported how many prisoners have died and how many are in Russian custody or in hospitals.
"We are waiting for an answer from the Red Cross. We are very outraged. They promised us, they promised the boys, that the boys would return alive, but they did not keep their promises," said Krotevych.
The relatives of the prisoners will demand the resignation of the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross and are already preparing documents for this.
"Such an organization cannot be financed by the whole world, because it does not fulfill its obligations under the conventions it is supposed to fulfill. "For 72 days, I havenʼt heard from the Red Cross whether my brother is alive or where he is," Krotevych added.
The International Committee of the Red Cross informed that they did not receive permission to access the colony in the occupied Olenivka (Donetsk oblast), where Ukrainian prisoners of war from "Azov" were kept. The Ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, stated that he did not receive any signal from the UN regarding the terrorist attack in Olenivka. Despite this, Russia stated it had invited the UN and the Red Cross to investigate.
- On the night of July 29, an explosion occurred in the colony in Olenivka. The Russians stated that it was the Armed Forces of Ukraine that was hit with HIMARS. However, the General Staff of Ukraine stated that the pre- trial detention center was fired upon by the Russians themselves in order to accuse Ukraine of "war crimes" and to cover up torture of prisoners and executions.
- On July 30, the Russian Ministry of Defense published a list of Ukrainian prisoners of war who allegedly died as a result of a terrorist attack. There are 48 dead in the list, and 73 names in the list of wounded.
- Ukrainian military intelligence said that the explosion was carried out by the mercenaries of PMC “Wagner" on the instructions of the owner of PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, "Putinʼs cook". They did not coordinate the organization and actual terrorist attack with the leadership of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
- According to the Ukrainian side, the explosions took place on the territory of the industrial zone in a newly built building that was supposed to be specially equipped to hold prisoners who were taken out of Azovstal. The building was completed on July 27, after which some of the captured Ukrainian defenders were transferred to it.