KYIV: Ukraine’s human rights commissioner urged the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations to investigate an image widely shared online on Saturday that he said likely showed a Ukrainian prisoner-of-war killed and dismembered by Russian forces.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general said separately that an urgent investigation had been launched into information being spread on social networks about the murder and dismemberment of a Ukrainian POW.
“A photograph, probably of a Ukrainian prisoner whose head and limbs were cut off by the Russians, has appeared online,” Dmytro Lubinets, the country’s leading human rights official, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
“In view of these horrific images, I have urgently appealed to the ICRC and the UN to record yet another human rights violation by the terrorist country,” Lubinets wrote.
Andriy Kostin, the prosecutor general, said an urgent investigation had been launched. “Russia consistently repeats the crimes of the Nazis, defiantly showing utter contempt for all norms of the civilized world,” he wrote on Telegram.
Russia denies torture or other forms of maltreatment of POWs.
A United Nations commission of inquiry on Ukraine said in a report published in March that it had documented credible allegations of executions of at least 32 Ukrainian POWs in 12 separate incidents from December 2023 to February, and that it had independently verified three of the incidents.
The three-member Commission of Inquiry said it had also gathered more evidence that Russia had systematically tortured Ukrainian POWs, documenting rape threats and the use of electric shocks on genitals.
It said the scale of such torture cases may amount to the most serious abuses known as crimes against humanity, describing their occurrence as “widespread and systematic.”
Ukraine accuses Russian forces of killing, dismembering prisoner-of-war
https://arab.news/8r7ke
Ukraine accuses Russian forces of killing, dismembering prisoner-of-war
- A UN inquiry said in a report published in March that it had documented credible allegations of executions of at least 32 Ukrainian POWs
- Russia denies torture or other forms of maltreatment of POWs
UK warship to leave for Cyprus next week: officials
- HMS Dragon, a Type 45 defense destroyer, will sail to aid Britain’s “defensive operations”
- Opposition lawmakers have accused the government of being too slow to deploy additional resources
LONDON: A UK warship due to be sent to Cyprus amid the US and Israel’s war with Iran will not set sail from Britain until next week, Western officials said Wednesday.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Tuesday that he was deploying HMS Dragon, a Type 45 defense destroyer to aid Britain’s “defensive operations” in the region.
Starmer also said he was sending two Wildcat helicopters with counter-drone capabilities.
The announcement came after several drone attacks from Iran targeted UK allies in the Middle East and after the UK Royal Air Force base Akrotiri was struck overnight Sunday to Monday.
Opposition lawmakers have accused the government of being too slow to deploy additional resources after the war started on Saturday with no British warship in the region.
The destroyer is being resupplied with ammunition and will sail next week, the officials told reporters in London.
“We’ve had to change weapon systems on it, finish welding, get it up and running, and get it sailing as fast as possible,” Defense Minister Al Carns told Sky News.
Its voyage to the eastern Mediterranean is expected to take several days.
Starmer refused to allow the Americans to use UK air bases to launch the initial strikes on Iran on Saturday.
He later agreed to a US request to use two British military bases — one in southwest England and the other in the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean — for a “specific and limited defensive purpose.”
The officials said Wednesday that US bombers have not yet used those bases to launch missions but they are expected to do so in the coming days.
They also said that the drone, which caused little damage and no casualties when it hit the runway at Akrotiri, had not been launched from Iran.
A Cypriot government source said Monday that the drones had been launched from Lebanon, “most likely” by Hezbollah, a historical ally of Iran in the Middle East.
