GENEVA, September 1. /TASS/. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Director General Robert Mardini called to allow ICRC representatives to visit all Ukrainian prisoners of war, according to the statement, disseminated by the ICRC headquarters in Geneva.

"To date we have only been able to visit hundreds of prisoners of war on both sides. And we know there are thousands more we still need access to," Mardini said. "We will keep demanding access to all POWs, guided by our humanitarian commitment and our mandate under the Geneva Conventions."

According to the official, "despite intense negotiations behind-the-scenes, the ICRC has not yet been given the necessary guarantees to visit the POWs" that were accommodated in the Yelenovka detention facility, which was attacked in late July.

"We are working hard to change that," Mardini said, adding that the ICRC will "will not stop pushing with persistence and determination for access to and information about" the captives.

Speaking about the ICRC’s role in the May events at the Azovstal plant in Mariuopol, Mardini said that the Committee "facilitated the safe passage of combatants out of the plant, in coordination with the parties to the armed conflict."

"Given that they were then POWs in the hands of the adversary, we registered their information on the understanding that the ICRC would later be allowed to visit them," Mardini said. "But we cannot guarantee the safety of the POWs once in the adversary’s hands, because it is simply not within our power to do so.

Earlier, the ICRC headquarters said that Mardini is visiting Ukraine this week in order to assess the ICRC humanitarian operations, and plans to visit Russia in the future.