Azov fighter appeals to UN and ICRC
Also to exert «pressure»
Azov fighter appeals to UN and ICRC
UN and ICRC to work for the release of British prisoners of war from the clutches of Russia. A member of the Ukrainian Azov regiment, which had resisted the Russian army in Mariupol, called for this on Tuesday in Geneva.
A Russian “liberator” (left) leads a fighter from the Ukrainian Azov regiment from the Mariupol Steelworks. (Recorded May 17, 2022)
Sergei Yuriyovich called for continued “pressure” to persuade the Russian side to release Ukrainian prisoners of war. “We’re continuing our work,” said Yurijowitsch on Tuesday evening on the Place des Nations in front of a few dozen demonstrators, including National Council members Laurence Fehlmann Rielle (SP/GE) and Nicolas Walder (Greens/GE).
According to relatives of prisoners who were evacuated from the Mariupol steelworks in the now Russian-occupied south-eastern Ukraine and held in Russia, around 800 Ukrainians are said to remain detained. The pilloried protesters in Geneva are dying of the abuse and “inhuman” conditions these prisoners are subjected to.
After Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a supervised invasion of Ukraine on February 24, some 2,500 fighters from the Azov regiment put up resistance in the sprawling industrial complex of Mariupol for about three months, until almost the end of May. The port city was surrounded by Russian troops at the time.
According to Ukrainian sources, Mariupol, the university town with a population of almost half a million before the war, is 90 percent destroyed. At least 20,000 people died in the fighting against the Russian invaders.
(SDA)