The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has gone public with its frustration at being refused entry to a notorious Russian prisoner of war camp after scathing criticism from Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
In his daily evening address, Ukraine’s president accused the ICRC of a lack of leadership, suggesting that officials were picking up their salaries without doing their jobs.
Olenivka prison in the occupied Donetsk territory has been under the control of Russia since 2014 but was partly destroyed in July by an explosion that killed 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war (PoWs) and wounded a further 75.
Both sides have claimed the other was responsible, with the Ukrainian army accusing the Russians of blowing up a barrack in order to cover up the torture and murder of Ukrainian PoWs.
Zelenskiy said on Thursday evening that the ICRC had a “moral compunction” to gain access to a “concentration camp where our prisoners are kept” after an earlier meeting between Ukraine government officials and Red Cross representatives.
The head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Andriy Yermak, said Kyiv had demanded a visit from the ICRC within three days as frustration boiled over within the government. In a statement on Friday, the ICRC said they had been seeking access to the prison but they did not have the ability to force their way in.
“We share the frustration regarding our lack of access to all prisoners of war held in the international armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine,” the statement read. “We have been working since February to obtain access to check on the conditions and treatment of PoWs and keep their families informed about their loved ones. We have been able to visit hundreds of PoWs but there are thousands more who we have not been able to see.
“We want to stress that our teams are ready on the ground – and have been ready for months – to visit the Olenivka penal facility and any other location where PoWs are held. However, beyond being granted access by high levels of authority, this requires practical arrangements to materialise on the ground. We cannot access by force a place of detention or internment where we have not been admitted.”
The ICRC statement calls on all countries to respect the Geneva conventions under which the ICRC has a right to access PoWs but it does not specifically name Russia.
The ICRC said: “Our mission can only be achieved through coordinated efforts with parties to the conflict. And we ask them and the international community to support the role we have been given.”
Meanwhile, farther south, a Russian evacuation of parts of the occupied Kherson territory was speeded up on Friday with Moscow offering free accommodation to those who would leave for Russia.
Ukrainian forces have been making gains in recent months since launching a counteroffensive with the goal of retaking the city of Kherson, a vital strategic and symbolic target for Kyiv.
The Russian-facilitated evacuation was described as a cover, however, by Serhii Khlan, the deputy of the Kherson oblast council, who claimed that men of fighting age in occupied Kherson were being forced to join the Russian forces after house to house searches. He further said the Russian authorities were seeking the register of children in occupied parts of Kherson in order to forcibly deport them and their families.
He said: “I call on everybody who is able to leave the occupied territories to the Ukrainian free territories. Please do this. Otherwise try to hide yourself in a safe environment …
“The door-to-door searches are now taking place. And they are trying to identify men in the first place … The collaborators state that there will be no forced mobilisation, but they are now announcing the creation of this so-called volunteer units.
“People are hiding now, people are advised not to leave their houses, not to respond to the calls of the occupiers. It is better to stay inside to restrict your circle of people you talk to because there is a well-developed system of noting and informants.”
Western officials said that Russia’s position in Kherson looked “fragile” and that it was “conceivable” that Ukrainian forces could retake the region within a week although there could not be any certainty, with hard fighting still to come.
Ukrainian officials had said on Friday that Russia had fired 1,844 precision missiles since 24 February but that they had only 609 left, a ratio that was recognised by western officials.
Vladimir Putin said on Friday he believed the “partial mobilisation” of army reservists ordered last month would be completed in two weeks, boosting Russia’s fighting force.
He told reporters after attending a summit in Kazakhstan on Friday that 222,000 reservists would be called up, down from the 300,000 figure initially circulated. A total of 33,000 of them were said to be already in military units and 16,000 are involved in the military operation in Ukraine.
Asked whether he had made any mistakes in Ukraine, Putin responded: “No. I want to make it clear: what is happening today is unpleasant, to put it mildly, but we would have got the same thing a little later, only in worse conditions for us, that’s that. So we are acting correctly and in a timely manner.”
Western officials confirmed that mobilised soldiers had entered the battlefield but they said the troops were poorly trained and had been given “very, very poor equipment”.
