Assistance to prisoners of war, civil prisoners and their families. Analytical report

This analytical report presents the findings and results of the public organization “Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group” during eight months: from February 1 to September 30, 2024. Assistance to families consisted of counseling them, tracing the whereabouts of prisoners and missing persons, and helping the prisoners themselves as much as possible. The work covered the Kharkiv, Kyiv, Sumy, and Mykolaiv regions.

The search for the location of prisoners of war, civilian prisoners, and missing persons was based on several types of materials collected by the KHPG. Materials include testimony, written information, open-source information, and audiovisual content. The collected data are stored in the KHPG’s proprietary database and the shared T4P database administered by the KHPG. In addition, the KHPG forms its register of prisoners of war, civilian prisoners, and missing persons, including the applicant’s data—a family member who applied to the KHPG.

The KHPG collects information using four methods:

a) interviewing victims (families of prisoners or missing persons) and witnesses;

b) monitoring visits to the de-occupied territory;

c) legal representation;

d) information from open sources.

KHPG monitors conduct interviews with victims and witnesses of illegal detention or enforced disappearance, interview families of prisoners of war, and find out all known information regarding detention, disappearance, capture, and stay in captivity. The KHPG finds the victims during field monitoring visits to the affected areas in the de-occupied territory and with the help of other forms of contact (by phone, in an online meeting, communication during reception hours directly in the offices in Kharkiv, Kyiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, as well as through the KHPG hotline for searching the missing persons). During seven months, 227 one-day trips were made to the affected areas.

KHPG lawyers provide legal assistance to victims and represent them in national courts, the UN Human Rights Committee, and other international institutions. In addition, KHPG lawyers are involved in documenting crimes and gathering information about alleged international crimes for further pre-trial investigations and prosecutions at the ICC and other international prosecution mechanisms. In the course of legal representation, the lawyers of KHPG cooperate with Ukrainian law enforcement agencies that investigate international crimes, which allows them to access the case files of the clients they represent, exchange information about incidents related to alleged international crimes, and also jointly travel to crime scenes to collect information about such crimes.

KPHG collects and analyzes information from open sources that has evidentiary value and can be used in criminal proceedings and for other methods of bringing legal responsibility. This information is of great importance for searching for the location of detention in which prisoners of war and civilian prisoners are held—38 such places of detention were found in the RF and 14 in the t.o.t. The KHPG has at its disposal the surnames, first names, and patronymics of 2,510 prisoners: military and civilian.

The register includes data on 7,330 people (190 women, 7,080 men), including 2,305 prisoners of war, 934 missing civilians, 3,797 missing military personnel, 188 missing children, and 106 unaccounted for. 214 prisoners were found among the missing persons recorded in the register. Also found were 131 prisoners convicted by the courts in Russia and t.o.t. of Ukraine.

Read more: Assistance to prisoners of war, civil prisoners and their families. Analytical report.pdf

PS: On October 2, 74 members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe unanimously adopted the resolution titled “Missing Persons, Prisoners of War, and Civilians in Detention as a Result of the Aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine” PACE condemned the appalling conditions in which prisoners are held, and criticized the Russian Federation’s refusal to communicate with international bodies and the families of Ukrainians in Russian prisons. Additionally, the resolution supports the idea of an “all-for-all” exchange.

“The figures speak for themselves,” the document says. — “The Assembly is appalled that as of 18 September 2024, a total of 65 956 servicemen and civilians were registered as missing or captured, among which 50 916 registered as missing based on verified data. In reality, the number of victims is much higher. The suffering and fear are endured not only by the captives themselves, be they servicemen or civilians, but also by their relatives. While 3 672 persons have been returned from Russian captivity between 24 February 2022 and 17 September 2024, including 168 Ukrainian civilians, the Assembly notes with concern that among those released, a third of them had been hitherto considered as missing, since the Russian Federation had failed to provide timely information about their fate, contrary to its international obligations.”