MOSCOW, August 3. /TASS/. Ukraine does not comply with international law on prisoners of war, as there are cases of torture, humiliation, beatings, refusals to provide medical treatment and extrajudicial executions as well as extortion from the families of prisoners of war, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said on Wednesday.
"Regrettably, the situation with Ukraine’s compliance with international humanitarian law is completely different. The videos of torture and humiliation circulating on the Internet, which have been uploaded by the perpetrators of these horrific acts of violence against captured service members of the Russian Armed Forces, the DPR and LPR, are widely known," Fomin said at a briefing for foreign military attaches.
Fomin pointed out that there had been numerous instances of beatings, intentional mutilation, and extrajudicial shootings of Russian prisoners of war. They were also denied medical treatment.
"Besides, the Ukrainian Neo-Nazis exert psychological pressure on the relatives of detained servicemen and broadly practice extortion of funds," he added.
A poll of the servicemen who returned from captivity shows that 81% of the soldiers had been beaten and physically abused, while 55% of the servicemen were forcefully drawn into making propaganda videos and 46% of them were denied the required medical assistance, and 79% of the POWs could not get in touch with their relatives, the defense official said.
"As many as 19% of the servicemen were provided with insufficient or inferior food. In particular, at a detention center belonging to the Ukrainian Security Service in Kiev, food (a piece of bread, 50 grams of porridge and a glass of water) was given once a day. Simultaneously, the servicemen constantly wore blind masks," the deputy defense minister said.