Relatives of prisoners in Odesa picketed the Red Cross

On May 12, relatives and friends of military personnel held in Russian captivity picketed the Red Cross office in Odesa, demanding that the organization be more active in returning and helping prisoners of war.

According to Intent, representatives of the Red Cross came out to the protesters and spoke to them in Russian.

The action took place at the corner of Universytetska and Torhova streets in Odesa.

During the traditional rally in support of prisoners of war in Odesa on May 11, one of the participants, whose brother has been in captivity since the first day of the full-scale war, spoke and criticized the actions of the International Red Cross, which, according to her, does not provide sufficient assistance to Ukrainian prisoners.

The woman stated that members of the organization visit and check the conditions of detention of Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine, but do not check the conditions of detention of Ukrainians in Russian captivity. Instead, the conditions of detention of Ukrainians in captivity are terrible - prisoners of war are not provided with sufficient food and medical care.

"The Red Cross visits Russian prisoners and sees the conditions. But not to ours. There is horror, lack of medicine. We ask international organizations not to stand aside and put pressure on Russia to allow observers there," Novosti.LIVE quoted the woman as saying.

On May 6, Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners of war, and 205 Ukrainian defenders returned to Ukraine, including 40 soldiers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Intent has already written about how Ukraine returned 95 soldiers from Russian captivity. The peculiarity of that exchange was that many Ukrainians returned home who had received so-called "sentences" from the aggressor country's judicial system and were "convicted": 28 to long sentences, and 20 to life imprisonment for defending their own land from the aggressor. Among the released prisoners was journalist, human rights activist, co-founder of Hromadske Radio and the Zmina Human Rights Center Maksym Butkevych.

Photo: Oksana Hrytsiuta

Кирило Бойко