JAKARTA - Russia has condemned the silence of European authorities regarding the abuse of its soldiers held captive by Ukraine, saying their soldiers showed courage and heroism during military operations in Ukraine.
The lack of response from the Council of Europe, the European Union and the Office of the Democratic Institute and Human Rights (ODIHR) to the Ukrainian military's abuse of Russian prisoners of war is criminal, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
"They are silent. There is no response to these war crimes and grave violations of international humanitarian law. Their eyes are being clouded by Russophobia," Zakharova criticized, quoted from TASS, March 30.
She added that in Strasbourg, no one had asked the question of excluding Ukraine from the Council of Europe, "although there are many reasons for this."
"ODIHR director Matteo Mecacci vents all his anger only on Russia. Moral guidelines and political honesty have been lost. What should we talk about with these institutions? Such silence is complicity in the atrocities being committed. This is also a crime," Zakharova said.
On Monday, videos surfaced on the Internet allegedly showing radical Ukrainian nationalists torturing captive Russian soldiers. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said those involved in the torture of Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine must be held accountable for their actions.
As previously reported, New York, United States-based international human rights organization Human Rights Watch urged Ukrainian authorities to respect the rights of prisoners of war, to stop posting videos of captured Russian soldiers on social media.
"Ukrainian authorities should stop posting on social media and messaging apps videos of captured Russian soldiers, publicly showing them, particularly those that show they were insulted or intimidated," Human Rights Watch said in a statement posted on its website.
"Such treatment of prisoners of war, or POWs, violates protections under the Geneva Conventions, which are intended to ensure the dignified treatment of captured combatants on all sides," the statement said.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin has ordered an investigation into reports of the barbaric treatment of Ukrainian nationalist prisoners of war in the Kharkov region.
"Bastrykin has instructed investigators to investigate the circumstances of the incident, build up evidence and identify all those responsible for convicting them under the law," the committee's press service said.
Videos of the cruel treatment of detainees by Ukrainian nationalists were posted on the internet, showing the nationalists shooting in the legs of the detainees, not offering medical assistance. The incident reportedly took place at a Ukrainian nationalist base in the Kharkov region.
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Separately, Russia's defense ministry reported losses among Russian servicemen taking part in special military operations in Ukraine, ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said.
"Russian soldiers showed courage and heroism during special military operations. But, unfortunately, there were dead and wounded among them," he said, adding that Russian losses were much smaller than "losses among Ukrainian troops" and nationalists.
He also said that several Russian soldiers had been taken captive. "We know how Nazi Ukraine treated some Russian servicemen who had been taken prisoner. We saw that they used the same torture as Nazi Germany during the Great Patriotic War (Eastern Front during World War II where the former Soviet Union fought against Nazi Germany - TASS)," he said.
However, he vowed the Russian military would continue to treat surrendering Ukrainian troops in a humane manner.
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