Moscow demands Kyiv to release Russian citizens captured in Donbass

The Russian Ministry of Defense demanded that Kyiv stop torture and release two former Russian servicemen detained on Monday in the Lugansk region. This was stated by the official representative of the department, Major General Igor Konashenkov. Director of the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights Alexander Brod answered questions from Kommersant FM host Alexei Korneev.

Photo: Dmitry Korotaev, Kommersant / buy photo

The Ministry of Defense emphasized that Russian citizens Alexander Alexandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev at the time of their arrest on May 17 “were not active servicemen of the Russian armed forces.” According to the General Staff of Ukraine, the men are now undergoing treatment in Kyiv.

— Apart from the standard expected statements from the Ministry of Defense, nothing has been done by Moscow yet, at least nothing has been made public. Maybe there are some secret negotiations taking place somewhere? What actions and from whom can we expect regarding these detainees?

— Our organization is monitoring the situation in Ukraine and Novorossiya. Naturally, this resonant incident cannot go unnoticed. We know that the Security Service of Ukraine very often fabricates such accusations; we even saw instructions for the media, where at one time they staged some incidents related to the presence of Russian military personnel and Russian weapons. However, we need to understand this detention. For our part, we will send a request to the military prosecutor’s office of Russia so that the situation can be verified, and we will send a request to the Commissioner for Human Rights in Ukraine, Ms. Lutkovskaya, so that she, through public control of human rights organizations of Ukraine, will also join the investigation.

It is necessary to establish who these people are, because the information is contradictory. Information has emerged that these are also Luhansk militia policemen, there is information that these are former Russian military personnel, so it is necessary to accurately and thoroughly determine who they are. The second point that worries us: knowing that Ukrainian security forces often use torture - we even had a special report, compiled by the Russian Foundation for the Study of Problems of Democracy Maxim Grigoriev, together with him we presented this document both in Geneva and recently in Moscow - a lot of facts when people are tortured in the most brutal ways and the necessary confessions are extracted under torture, including for the media.

To prevent this from happening again, although information has already leaked to the media that violence was used against these people, I think international human rights organizations and human rights structures - Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, OSCE - should have their say, since they are constantly monitoring the situation in region, they too, I believe, should give their assessment of what happened.

— What media contained information that torture was used? Because, for example, I only saw reports that they were operated on, one of them, in particular, was captured, if we believe that they are prisoners of war. He was on the verge of life and death, and he was, in fact, saved from this death.

— I saw it in some Russian media and the media of Novorossiya, we need to check this information.

— Will the actions of human rights defenders depend on whether they are active military personnel or not, or perhaps they are mercenaries?

- Firstly, these are people, and they should be treated with humane, humane treatment, regardless of who they belong to. The second point is, of course, the topic of the presence of the Russian military is of great concern to everyone, including the Human Rights Council. At one time, we also sent requests to both the Ministry of Defense and the military prosecutor’s office regarding information about the presence of Russian troops in Ukraine, but we received answers that they were not present. I myself have been to Novorossiya, Ukraine several times, I also asked these questions, I conducted my own investigation, but, nevertheless, the information has not yet been confirmed.

— If these are Luhansk militias, what do Russian human rights activists have to do with it?

“Therefore, we need to find out exactly who these people are, and they have the right to safety.”

— Have you already contacted the Kyiv authorities about investigating this situation and assistance from official Kyiv in this?

“We are sending a request to Mrs. Lutkovskaya on May 19, we talked with members of her staff, I think they will get involved and conduct their investigation. In addition, we have lawyers, there are human rights activists, there are few of them on the territory of Ukraine, in Kyiv. Of course, people are under oppression and cannot always fully demonstrate their capabilities, however, let us hope that honest, objective human rights defenders of Ukraine and Kyiv will conduct their investigation.

“The topic of the presence of the Russian military is of great concern to everyone, including the HRC”