The chief of the UN human rights mission in Ukraine has accused Russia of failing to allow access to prisoners of war (POWs) and said that it has evidence of ill-treatment and torture of Ukrainian prisoners that may constitute war crimes.
"The Russian Federation has not provided access to prisoners of war held on its territory or in territory under its occupation...," Matilda Bogner, the head of the mission, told a news conference in Geneva on September 9.
"This is all the more worrying since we have documented that prisoners of war in the power of the Russian Federation and held by the Russian Federation's armed forces or by affiliated armed groups have suffered torture and ill-treatment," she added.
Russia has repeatedly denied it has tortured or mistreated prisoners of war captured since it launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Under the UN's 1949 Geneva Conventions, of which Russia and Ukraine are signatories, torture, willfully causing injury, murdering POWs, deliberately targeting civilian populations, and the extensive destruction of property without military necessity all rank as war crimes.
Kyiv says its has launched investigations into about 32,000 suspected war crimes -- including for torture and mistreatment of POWs -- since the invasion was launched.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on September 9 that he could not comment on the UN statement because Russian authorities did not have enough information from the UN on what it was basing its allegations on.
