The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine welcomes the invocation on 24 July by the OSCE participating States of the OSCE Human Dimension Moscow Mechanism to examine the situation of Ukrainian POWs held by Russia, as well as crimes related to violations of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War of 1949.
This is an important initiative that will help document numerous crimes committed by Russia against the Ukrainian POWs, attract additional attention to them by the international community, and contribute to bringing those responsible to justice.
The invocation of the Moscow Mechanism was made possible through the joint efforts of Ukraine and 41 OSCE Participating States in response to systematic violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) by the Russian Federation during its ongoing full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine.
The Russian Federation systematically exposes Ukrainian soldiers who have been taken prisoner to inhumane treatment both on its territory and in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. Torture and execution of the Ukrainian soldiers who have surrendered have become common practice.
The Moscow Mechanism will make it possible for a mission of independent experts to investigate information about violations of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, other norms of IHL and IHRL, and to make a report on their findings.
It is important that the conclusions of the final report made by independent experts could be used within the framework of national and international mechanisms for prosecuting war crimes committed by the aggressor state.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, this is the fifth time that Moscow Mechanism have been invoked within the OSCE to investigate numerous crimes committed by the Russian Federation. Previous reports by independent expert missions concerned Russia's illegal deportation of Ukrainian children, arbitrary deprivation of liberty of Ukrainian civilians, and other violations of IHL and IHRL, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Russian Federation.
For the reference: The Moscow Mechanism is a special procedure of the OSCE Human Dimension, provided for by a consensus decision of all participating States in the 1991 OSCE Moscow Document and the 1992 OSCE Helsinki Document. The mechanism makes it possible to appoint independent expert missions to investigate the information of violations and assists in resolving specific problems related to the OSCE Human Dimension issues.