(Nusa Dua) The head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov judged Tuesday, on the sidelines of the G20 in Indonesia, “unrealistic” Ukrainian conditions for starting talks to end the war.
“All the problems come from the Ukrainian side which categorically refuses negotiations and puts forward claims that are manifestly unrealistic and not in line with the situation,” he said.
He claimed to have meant it to French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during “short conversations” during the G20.
According to him, “the settlement process (of the conflict) is hampered by Ukraine”, a country that Russia invaded on February 24th.
Ukraine demands the withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory and the return of its territorial integrity, while Moscow claimed the annexation of four Ukrainian regions at the end of September, in addition to the Crimean peninsula annexed in 2014.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told him following these annexations that he would not negotiate with Vladimir Putin.
Military counter-offensives have enabled Ukraine, armed by its Western allies, to reconquer lost territories, forcing Russia into humiliating retreats.
Mr. Lavrov also denounced the “Russophobic” nature of Mr. Zelensky’s speech before the G20.
Sergei Lavrov also once again accused the West of waging a “hybrid war” against Russia using Ukraine.
He repeated that Moscow had been forced to launch its offensive against its neighbor to defend itself and protect the Russian-speaking populations.
The head of Russian diplomacy also indicated that, in his opinion, the United States was not preparing peace negotiations on Ukraine.
“Regarding reports that the Americans are planning talks, these rumors appear regularly and then disappear,” he said.
Ukraine accuses Moscow of sending African prisoners to the front
Kyiv on Tuesday accused Moscow of sending African detainees held in Russia to the front in Ukraine after a Zambian student died in combat while serving a sentence in a prison near Moscow.
“Putin is sending African citizens imprisoned in Russia to the war in Ukraine,” denounced on Twitter the spokesman for Ukrainian diplomacy, Oleg Nikolenko.
On Monday, Zambia announced the death of one of its fellow citizens, Lemekhani Nathan Nyirenda, “who died on September 22, 2022 in Ukraine”, while he was supposed to be imprisoned in Russia.
Zambia said it had asked Russia for an explanation “about the circumstances under which a Zambian citizen, who is serving a prison sentence in Moscow, could have been recruited to fight in Ukraine and lost his life”.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Russian diplomacy said it was “examining” the “circumstances” of the death of this 23-year-old Zambian student.
“Africans should not die for Putin’s unhealthy imperial ambitions,” Nikolenko said on Tuesday.
The boss of the paramilitary group Wagner, Yevgueni Prigojine, reputed to be close to Vladimir Putin, is accused by Ukraine of sending thousands of fighters recruited directly from Russian prisons to the front, against the promise of a large salary and a remission.
Lemekhani Nathan Nyirenda had been found guilty of breaking Russian law in April 2020, according to the Zambian government which did not give further details on Monday.
This nuclear engineering student had been sentenced to nine years and six months in prison. He was serving his sentence in a medium-security prison on the outskirts of Moscow.
Many prisoners of war captured by Russian and Ukrainian forces as part of the conflict in Ukraine are being subjected to torture and ill-treatment, including electric shocks, the UN warned on Tuesday.
Ukrainian and Russian prisoners of war subjected to torture, warns the UN
Many prisoners of war captured by Russian and Ukrainian forces as part of the conflict in Ukraine are being subjected to torture and ill-treatment, including electric shocks, the UN warned on Tuesday.
“The prohibition of torture and ill-treatment is absolute, even-in fact especially-in times of armed conflict,” said the head of the Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, during a a videoconference from Kyiv.
She recalled that both countries are parties to the Third Geneva Convention, which sets requirements for the treatment of prisoners of war.
Over the past few months, the mission has interviewed 159 POWs (139 men and 20 women) held by Russia and its affiliated armed groups and 175 POWs (all men) held by Ukraine.
The mission was granted unimpeded access to the places of internment of prisoners of war controlled by the Ukrainian government, but the United Nations, despite its requests, has still not been granted confidential access to prisoners of war interned by Russia and its affiliated armed groups.
The United Nations was, however, able to interview Ukrainian prisoners of war who had been released.
As for the prisoners of war captured by the Russian forces, “the vast majority of the people we interviewed told us that they had been tortured and ill-treated during their internment” on a daily basis, indicated Mr.me Bogner.
Upon capture, some of the prisoners were beaten. They are then transported to their place of detention, “often in overcrowded trucks or buses”, without always having access to water or toilets for more than a day.
“Their hands were tied and their eyes taped so tightly that it left wounds on their wrists and faces,” Ms.me Bogner.
Upon their arrival in certain places of internment, prisoners of war are subjected to “admission procedures”, according to testimonies collected by the UN, during which they are beaten for a long time, threatened, attacked by dogs or negligees.
The UN has also received “credible allegations” of summary executions of Russian prisoners of war captured by Ukrainian forces and several cases of torture and ill-treatment.
“We have documented cases of torture and ill-treatment, mainly when people were captured, or while they were subjected to initial interrogation or transferred to transit camps and places of internment,” explained Mr.me Bogner.