A team of 11 members of the International Committee of the Red Cross is ready to visit the prisoners in the prison in Yelenovka, but does not have minimum security guarantees on the spot and “permission from local authorities” to conduct a visit.
Source: ICRC
Literally: “A team of 11 members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), including a doctor, is ready in Donetsk to visit all prisoners of war held in the area, in particular in the prison in Yelenovka … Their mission will be to check the conditions of detention and treatment , delivering essential supplies and enabling prisoners of war to contact their families.
The intense fighting in the area today highlights how great the danger was and how difficult this mission was. Our team has been ready for several months, but still does not have both minimum security guarantees on site and local permission to conduct a visit.”
Details: The ICRC has said that the Committee’s accusations of “being denied full and immediate access” will not help either the prisoners of war or their families, and the only ones who can change the situation are the states involved and the “authorities” carrying out the detention guarded.
For reference: The Third Geneva Convention obliges the parties to an international armed conflict to provide the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) with immediate access to all prisoners of war and the right to visit them, wherever they are held.
Recall: Earlier, the ICRC said that it could not “break through by force” to the Ukrainian prisoners of war, who are illegally detained by the Russian Federation, but “shared the disappointment” of Ukraine.