Published
Update
Article written by
After eight months of war, prisoners have piled up on both sides of the border. France Télévisions was able to visit a place of detention in Ukraine with sometimes seriously injured Russian detainees.
In western Ukraine, a place has been turned into a detention camp for Russian prisoners of war. Men arrested by Ukrainian forces on the battlefields are held here. Some keep serious consequences of the fights. “In February, my convoy was ambushed. That’s where I lost my leg”, says one of them. In this center, there are several hundred, but the kyiv authorities refuse to give a precise figure. Detainees are entitled to two hours of television with, of course, Ukrainian news programs. “I don’t understand anything, the Russian authorities were telling us things and here I hear the complete opposite. I try to compare, but nothing is clear”underlines a prisoner.
“The Ukrainian authorities have learned from their mistakes. At the beginning of the conflict, they were widely criticized for having organized press conferences in which Russian prisoners engaged in repentance in front of the cameras. Ukrainians who try to prove to us that these methods no longer apply”, says Maryse Burgot, special correspondent for France Télévisions who was able to access this prison. Respect for the Geneva Convention, the right for prisoners to call their families, care for the wounded… Ukraine wants to prove that it respects human rights. The Red Cross was able to visit this prison, but has not yet published its findings. There are other places of detention of Russian prisoners which have not been visited.