Ukrainian soldiers stand in the basement of the recaptured Ukrainian village of Kozacha Lopan, according to Ukrainian authorities. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
The Russian Federation’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine
Lecture by Ambassador Michael R. Carpenter
To the Vienna Permanent Board
October 5, 2023
This week marks the start of the OSCE Warsaw Human Dimensions Conference. This is an important event to assess the implementation of the OSCE’s human rights commitments. There were some notable absences this year as well, including the Russian Federation. It is no wonder that Russia, a country whose military committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine, does not want to confront its own abysmal human rights record in this forum. Instead, Russia continued to fire missiles and drones at Ukraine overnight, and reportedly attacked the country again with 29 kamikaze drones. So today I want to talk about one of the enduring aspects of this record: Russia’s continued detention of Ukrainian civilians.
In a September 20 report, the civil society group Media Initiative for Human Rights describes how it identified 1,168 Ukrainian civilians held in Russian Federation or Russian-occupied territory in Ukraine. explained. They assessed that the actual number was likely to be five to seven times higher.
Separately, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) also recorded 864 cases of “arbitrary detention” by Russian forces between February 2022 and May 2023. OHCHR considers many of these cases to constitute enforced disappearances. Ukrainian civilians were taken from Kiev, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhia, Odessa and Crimea.
OHCHR has identified 161 detention centers in the Russian Federation where Russia is detaining or processing Ukrainian detainees. 124 of these detention centers are located in occupied Ukraine, including five in Crimea. Thirty-five are in Russia, and there are two detainee transit centers in Belarus. OHCHR found that the Russian Federation forcibly transferred detainees between locations outside the occupied territories, in violation of international humanitarian law.
Mr. Speaker, each person to whom the Russian Federation forcibly introduced a system of filtration and detention has its own story of suffering and horror. A story imposed on us by Russia.
Consider Mykyta Horban’s experience. Mikita and her father were taken from their home by Russian federal troops. POWs reportedly tortured them by pouring water on their shoes and leaving them outside, which led to frostbite. No medical care was provided for more than a month. In Mikita’s words: “They pushed me to the point where my fingers almost fell out of my body. Then me and another man were taken to a military hospital and underwent surgery. Just my fingers. was amputated, but the man’s leg was amputated up to the knee.” Mikita was lucky to be able to return to Ukraine, but her father remains in Russian custody. Russia has not provided information about his safety or whereabouts.
Or consider the experience of Olha and her brothers, Ole and Andriy. After the Russian army ransacked Olha’s house, they moved the three brothers to a nearby hole, where they were taken prisoner. In the pit, soldiers beat Andriy with metal rods, breaking his leg. A few days later, the three brothers were separated, and Olha and I ran away to return home. Mr. Andriy was not so lucky, as his leg was broken. A year later, Russia is still holding him somewhere. The only communication Russia has allowed so far is a short letter from Andriy saying, “I miss you very much. I hope to see you again someday.”
The more we learn about these individual experiences, the better we understand the Russian Federation’s overarching strategy. And there’s every indication that this is actually intentional. As the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture, Dr. Alice Gilles Edwards, has stated, “The amount of credible allegations of torture and other inhumane practices perpetrated by the Russian authorities against civilians and prisoners of war is… They appear unabated. These terrible acts are neither random nor accidental, but rather orchestrated as part of a state policy to intimidate, instill fear, punish, and extract information and confessions. It looks like it is.”
Mr. Speaker, in the face of such atrocities, such inhumane acts, we must act to hold Russia accountable. It is unacceptable that Russia continues to detain Ukrainian civilians, including Crimean Tatar activists Nariman Zhelyar, Asan Aktemov, and Aziz Aktemov. We all have to ask ourselves fundamental questions.If so, what would you like this organization to do? our younger sister, our Brother, our Children captured by Russia? Please think about it carefully.
Mr. Chairman, we must continue to deploy the full range of OSCE tools to expose Russian atrocities and force Russia to release all Ukrainian civilians it continues to hold. We must continue to support Ukraine as long as it is needed. Our support aims to ensure respect for international law and basic human decency. It is about ensuring that all Ukrainians are protected from the brutality and terror that Russia has inflicted on them for far too long.
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