Red Cross: We cannot ensure the safety of prisoners

ICRC Director General Robert Mardini said in an interview with Ukrayinska Pravda that the safety of prisoners of war is the responsibility of those who hold them.

The ICRC cannot guarantee the safety of prisoners of war. We don't have an army, we don't have weapons, said Robert Mardini.

Now, in an organization that should direct all efforts and resources to the protection and preservation of the lives of prisoners of war, they are simply "devastated."

Of course, we are devastated when we know that prisoners of war are dying in the pre-trial detention center, either due to lack of medical care, or due to shelling or attack. This is unacceptable. But we cannot guarantee safety because we are not there. This is the responsibility of the parties in accordance with the conventions that they have adopted, signed and ratified,” Mardini said.

The ICRC registered about 1,800 combatants who left Azovstal in order to maintain contact with them in the future and ensure their safety.

We registered them with the understanding that we would be able to visit them. But they couldn't..., - said Mardini.

Recall that one of the conditions for the release of the Heroes of Ukraine from Azovstal was security guarantees for the defenders of Ukraine from the ICRC and the UN, which they gave, but then stated that they did not give any guarantees. And allegedly all that the Red Cross guaranteed was only a safe exit from Azovstal.

We have guaranteed their safe exit. The fact that they will go out and not be executed, killed, that nothing will happen to them during the exit. We also registered them. As a rule, we receive data from the relatives of the captured, they contact us, we record and start looking for these people. In this case, we registered those who went out and wished to register. Thus, we bypassed this intermediate link in the form of relatives and their statements, and could immediately take care of those who were leaving, - Alexander Vlasenko, representative of the ICRC delegation in Ukraine, in an August interview with DW.