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Human rights official calls out global silence on Russian POWs being tortured in Ukraine

The ombudswoman said she had been getting "a large number" of complaints from the families of Russian servicemen about torture and personal threats

MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/. Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova has called out the global community’s silence on reports about Russian POWs (prisoners of war) being tortured in Ukraine as double standards.

"We are not seeing any principled reaction every honest person would expect to get from the world community. This demonstrates the use of double standards," Moskalkova said during an on-air broadcast of the Radio Rossii (Radio of Russia) station, when asked if international organizations have somehow reacted to the cases of torture.

The ombudswoman said she had been getting "a large number" of complaints from the families of Russian servicemen about torture and personal threats.

Tensions escalated along the line of contact in Donbass on February 17. Back then, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics had reported the heaviest shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces at that time. On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the recognition of the DPR and LPR’s sovereignty in accordance with the two republics’ constitutions within the boundaries of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions as of the beginning of 2014. On February 24, Putin launched a special military operation in response to a request for help from the heads of the Donbass republics.