‘They called us Ukrainian pigs’

Kyiv says Russian Red Cross employees have mocked and humiliated POWs in occupied territories

In late 2023, the Estonian news agency Delfi Estonia obtained a set of leaked documents from the Russian presidential administration. In the weeks that followed, journalists from Meduza, iStories, and numerous other international outlets studied the documents and used them to conduct investigations into Russian government activity as part of a joint project called Kremlin Leaks. One of these investigations concerns the activities of the Russian Red Cross Society (which receives funding from the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross) on Ukrainian territory. Meduza explains how the organization openly supports Russia and violates the rules of the Red Cross movement — and why the International Red Cross Committee may be incentivized to turn a blind eye.

Pavel Savchuk has long been an active Kremlin supporter. A video from 2017 shows him reciting poetry about the beauty of Crimea (which Moscow had annexed three years earlier) as photos of the peninsula fade in and out behind him. At the time, he was 22 years old and was serving as the head of the Kremlin-aligned Medical Volunteers youth movement.

By the time Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Savchuk had become the head of the Russian Red Cross Society (RRC), Russia’s official affiliate of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Savchuk hasn’t spoken out publicly about Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine. About a year into the invasion, he personally presented a certificate from the Russian Red Cross to the management of the Avangard missile plant in the Moscow region. A year later, in February 2024, Savchuk signed a partnership agreement between the Russian Red Cross and the Russian government-funded Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation (a target of E.U. sanctions), which is engaged in the “patriotic education of children and youth” and the “glorification of the feats of veterans of the special military operation.”

But this is far from the only way the Russian Red Cross participates in Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine. Despite receiving funding from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the RRC has violated Red Cross movement policies by operating in Ukraine’s occupied territories and has taken an openly pro-Russian stance in its official communications and activities.

Moving beyond Russia’s borders

In the next three years, the Russian Red Cross will receive approximately two billion rubles ($21.7 million) from the Russian government. The RRC is listed as its own line item in the federal budget, similar to the state charity foundation Circle of Kindness, which purchases expensive medication from suppliers close to Putin’s friends, or the Internet Development Institute, which creates and spreads pro-war propaganda.

It was only in 2022 that the Russian authorities decided to provide ongoing funding for the RRC — before the full-scale war, the government only provided one-time subsidies. Moscow also makes regular financial contributions to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Leaked internal documents from the Russian presidential administration show that some of the funds allocated to the RRC by the Russian government are earmarked for work in Ukraine’s occupied territories. This is despite the fact that the Red Cross movement’s rules do not allow national Red Cross societies to work in combat zones (only the ICRC can do this). A source familiar with the organization’s work confirmed: soon after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the RRC became “interested in working with residents of Ukraine’s occupied territories.”

A source close to the ICRC said that at the beginning of the full-scale war, the RRC did not try to operate in Ukraine. In 2023, however, RRC workers began appearing in Ukraine’s occupied territories. One Russian human rights worker told the authors of this report that RRC representatives traveled to Mariupol for a “humanitarian mission” after the city was occupied by Russian forces. The worker said he was “struck” by how fervently several RRC representatives he spoke to supported the war: “They talked constantly about supporting people from the so-called new territories and working with the families of special military operation participants.”

‘Russia loves you and takes care of you’

Ukrainian sources have also reported encountering Russian Red Cross workers in the occupied territories.

Ukrainian soldier Orest Hrytsyuk, who spent six months as a POW at a prison colony in the occupied city of Horlivka, told the authors of this report that in the spring of 2023, the prisoners were visited by two men in civilian clothing who prison guards referred to as “Red Cross representatives.” Hrytsyuk recounted how the visitors mocked the POWs, who he said were given very little time to eat scalding food in the prison cafeteria:

As these two guys in plainclothes walked between the tables, one of them kept saying: “Look how well they’re eating — like pigs! Ukrainian pigs. Eat up, eat up. Russia loves you and takes care of you. Don't make shit up when you get home.”

Afterwards, Hrytsyuk said, the prisoners were taken to the parade ground and forced to sing Soviet military songs, which he said was a common practice at the camp. Hrytsyuk’s unit was only made to march in a circle once, but the unit that followed was ordered to march for a long time while “singing various songs”:

The man who had called us pigs in the cafeteria took out his phone, filmed the marching POWs, went up to them, screamed something in their ears and shook his fist over their heads, and slapped them on the back and shoulders so hard that they staggered. He turned the camera to himself and made the victory sign, outwardly enjoying himself; for him, it was all a show. […]

These two guys had a complete carte blanche to walk around the cafeteria, be on the parade ground, and “order” songs [to be sung by the prisoners]. And the parade ground is sacred — you can’t just walk onto it. If you’re not a soldier, you’re supposed to walk around the parade ground. But they felt comfortable there — they were having the time of their lives.

Yuriy Taranyuk, a representative of Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, said that the ICRC reacted “very quickly” when Hrytsyuk first reported that alleged Red Cross representatives had visited his POW camp. According to Taranyuk, the ICRC contacted Hrytsyuk through the headquarters and sent Taranyuk an official note stating that the men Hrytsyuk had seen at the camp “were not their employees.”

“They [the ICRC employees] said that these were likely representatives of the Russian Red Cross, and that International Red Cross employees would not have spoken in Russian as they cannot be Russian or Ukrainian [citizens according to Red Cross movement rules],” Hrytsyuk told the authors of this report.

The ICRC representative who contacted Hrytsyuk did not respond to requests for comment from the authors of this report, but Achille Després, a spokesperson for the ICRC in Ukraine, confirmed that the organization had “looked into” the situation. He also stated that ICRC representatives never said that the people who visited Hrytsyuk’s POW camp were employees of the Russian Red Cross.

When asked who else might have visited the prison while claiming to represent the Red Cross and insulting Ukrainian POWs in Russian, Després said he “doesn’t know who these people are” and that he has “no reason to believe that the Russian Red Cross was involved in this.”

“Unfortunately, some people may treat prisoners cruelly. Some people may pretend to be people they’re not. I don’t know and I don’t want to speculate about who they may be,” he added.

Galina Balzamova, a spokeswoman for the ICRC in Moscow, said that “they discussed the situation with the RRC, and they have no doubt that the RRC had nothing to do with it.” Ariane Bauer, the ICRC’s regional director for Europe and Central Asia, said that there are “no employees of the Russian Red Cross” on Ukrainian territory.

The ICRC maintains that “human rights workers” from the RRC could not have visited Orest Hrytsyuk’s POW camp because this would be “inconsistent with the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.” But according to Yuriy Taranyuk, the Ukrainian government is aware of other cases of RRC workers mocking and humiliating Ukrainian POWs, including in occupied Ukrainian territories.

“The mistreatment Orest Hrytsyuk suffered at the prison near Donetsk is a fact,” said Taranyuk. “This means that RRC workers were in the occupied territories. It’s obvious that the RRC is run by Russia’s leadership and does whatever it says. Because you can’t access these places without permission from a representative of Russia’s security forces.”

Taranyuk believes the ICRC has not spoken publicly about this issue out of fear that the Russian government will ban its operations on occupied territory altogether. “This policy of silence covers up the crimes of the Russian Red Cross,” he said.

At the same time, the ICRC’s own ability to operate in Ukraine’s occupied territories has been extremely limited since the start of the full-scale war. “Almost no Ukrainians who have returned from Russian captivity have seen any ICRC representatives in their places of detention,” Yuriy Taranyuk said.

According to a source familiar with the situation, the Russian authorities often refuse to let ICRC employees visit prisoners under the pretext that they cannot guarantee the representatives’ safety (despite the fact that the Geneva Conventions require that POWs be held in safe areas).

The result appears to be a situation in which the ICRC can do little to help civilians in occupied Ukraine but is reluctant to impose any sanctions against the Russian Red Cross. According to figures provided by the ICRC to the authors of this report, the ICRC provided more funding to the Russian Red Cross in 2023 than in 2022.

How much funding?

According to information provided by the ICRC to the authors of this story:

In 2022, the ICRC allocated the equivalent of 329 million rubles (about $3.5 million) to the Russian Red Cross. Out of this amount, about 2.6 million rubles (about $28,000) was used for “immediate support for people affected by the armed conflict” in February 2022.

In 2023, the ICRC allocated the equivalent of 538 million rubles (about $5.8 million) to the Russian Red Cross. Out of this, more than 474 million rubles (over $5.1 million) was spent on “multi-purpose financial assistance to people affected by the armed conflict, and expenses related to the implementation of this program.”

Proxy organizations

Despite receiving international funding, the Russian Red Cross has openly supported Russia in the war, including by collecting donations for the families of mobilized Russian soldiers on its official website and distributing mugs and shirts with Putin’s face and the pro-war Z symbol to Ukrainian refugees as “humanitarian aid.” It has also housed Ukrainian refugees in the same accommodations as Russian veterans. (In addition to providing temporary housing for Russian veterans, the RRC provides them with psychological treatment for conditions such as PTSD.)

The independent outlet Verstka has previously reported on cases of RRC workers treating Ukrainian refugees rudely and refusing to help them. The organization’s employees have also reportedly raised money for Russian soldiers and even helped recruit fighters for the war.

The RRC itself rarely talks publicly about its work in Ukraine’s annexed territories, and appears to have even created proxy organizations to carry out its operations there, though these agencies still use the Red Cross name and logo.

Numerous Russian media reports have referred to an organization called the “Donetsk Red Cross” that purportedly operates on occupied Ukrainian territories. (One news report initially referred to the “Russian Red Cross” but was later edited to replace that phrase with “Donetsk Red Cross.”) According to Russian government records, the organization was registered in August 2023 by a Russian citizen named Ekaterina Sukhacheva.

RRC president Pavel Savchuk has not commented publicly on the RRC’s relationship to the “Donetsk Red Cross” but has been photographed at the same events as its representatives. When the authors of this report asked Savchuk for comment, he forwarded their questions to the RRC’s press service and, later, blocked their number. The RRC’s press service refused to answer questions, citing the fact that some of the authors of this investigation work for news outlets that have been declared “undesirable organizations” in Russia.

Meanwhile, ICRC regional director Ariane Bauer told the authors of this report that the ICRC has no connection with the “Donetsk Red Cross” but is “in contact” with representatives of the organization. Bauer said that the employees of the “Donetsk Red Cross” are “local residents” who teamed up to provide humanitarian assistance and emphasized that it is not part of the Russian Red Cross. The authors of this report pointed out that the head of the “Donetsk Red Cross” is a Russian citizen, but Bauer did not comment on this.

ICRC Public Affairs Advisor Nadia Dibsy told the authors of this investigation that the ICRC isn’t just “in contact” with representatives of the “Donetsk Red Cross” but that it also “partners with them to provide aid to people affected by the armed conflict in this area.” (She did not specify what this aid entails.)

Another entity using the Red Cross brand has been working in the occupied Luhansk region (self-proclaimed “LNR”) since 2018: the “Red Cross Society in the Luhansk People’s Republic.” According to Russian public records, it was registered by a Russian citizen named Tatyana Sliva. She has told local journalists that her organization has been “working in the republic since 2014” and that it works closely with the Russian Red Cross.

Media reports show that the ICRC worked with the “Red Cross Society in the LNR” at least until the start of the full-scale war. Nadia Dibsy confirmed that the ICRC has long been “collaborating” with the unrecognized agency:

The Luhansk Red Cross is a local organization that helps residents of Luhansk and its surroundings. Even though they’re not currently part of the recognized national Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, we continue to work with them to help people affected by the international armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

At the same time, the “Luhansk Red Cross” continues to work with the occupation authorities and openly supports Russia in the war; for example, it delivers humanitarian aid to the region from Russia’s ruling United Russia party and refers to the occupied territories as “liberated.” The ICRC ignored questions from the authors of this report about the organization’s stance on the pro-Kremlin position of the “Luhansk Red Cross.” Tatyana Sliva did not respond to requests for comment.

Reporting by Elizaveta Antonova and Svetlana Reiter from Meduza, Anastasia Morozova from VSquare, and journalists from Paper Trail Media and Expressen, with contributions by Denis Dmitriev from Meduza. Abridged English-language version by Sam Breazeale.