Abstracts of the speech of the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Colonel-General A.V. Fomin on the topic: "On the humanitarian aspects of a special military operation"

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Text taken from a socialist media Telegram post via Armed Forces of Novorossiya post on Russian socialist media.

 (VSN) Abstracts of the speech of the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Colonel-General A.V. Fomin on the topic: "On the humanitarian aspects of a special military operation"

August 03, 2022

Ladies and gentlemen!

I would like to inform you about the efforts being made by the Russian Federation to comply with the norms of international humanitarian law in relation to prisoners of war.

Since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine, the Russian Federation has taken comprehensive measures to comply with the norms of international humanitarian law.

The corresponding instructions to the Russian servicemen were given by the President of the Russian Federation VV Putin and the Minister of Defense of Russia SK Shoigu.

In our work, we rely on the provisions of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the Manual on International Humanitarian Law for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, approved by order of the Minister of Defense of Russia. The manual is an addition to the statutory documents and includes the main provisions of the norms of international humanitarian law, as well as for its application in preparation for and during the conduct of hostilities.

Painstaking work is underway to treat the detained Ukrainians in accordance with the norms of international humanitarian law, primarily the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

Close contacts have been established with the specialized structures of the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross in order to provide humanitarian assistance to the population living in the territories liberated from the Ukrainian Nazis, as well as to work with prisoners of war.

On a regular basis, in a weekly format, meetings are held with representatives of international organizations, primarily the UN and the ICRC, to discuss the most pressing humanitarian issues in the Ukrainian direction. Since February 2022, more than 40 such meetings have been held.

In accordance with Article 122 of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, in February of this year, the Russian Ministry of Defense formed an Information Bureau for Prisoners of War.

Through the Bureau, information about Ukrainian prisoners of war in the possession of the Russian side is transmitted to the ICRC.

In accordance with Art. 126 of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War organized visits by ICRC staff to their places of detention.

All detainees are treated in strict accordance with the norms of international humanitarian law - they are provided with decent living conditions, food standards comply with the standards of the military personnel of the RF Armed Forces, and all necessary medical care is provided, including complex high -tech operations using modern equipment.

In addition, in accordance with Art. 71 of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, all detainees are given the opportunity to contact their relatives in Ukraine. Detainees make international telephone calls, write letters to their homeland.

Thanks to the assistance of the ICRC, more than 1,500 such letters have been sent to Ukraine.

Together with the UN and the ICRC, in April-May 2022, operations were successfully carried out to evacuate the civilian population from the Azovstal plant and withdraw the military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and militants of the Azov regiment from this facility.

In total, more than 3,000 people left Azovstal, of which more than 2,400 were servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and fighters of nationalist formations.

The operations were exclusively humanitarian in nature. Employees of international organizations confirmed the strict observance of the norms of international humanitarian law during their conduct.

With the participation of the ICRC, it was also possible to organize a dialogue with Kyiv on the issue of the exchange of prisoners of war and the bodies of dead servicemen. To date, 27 such operations have been carried out.

In accordance with Article 112 of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, a permanent medical commission has been formed in the Russian Ministry of Defense to examine sick and wounded prisoners of war and to make the necessary decisions on them.

The Commission carries out its work in accordance with the recommendations and principles prepared on the basis of the Geneva Convention.

Examination of the sick and wounded, as well as their repatriation, is carried out in a timely manner.

To date, according to the decisions of the commission, 18 people have been transferred to the Ukrainian side.

Unfortunately, the situation with Ukraine's compliance with the norms of international humanitarian law is completely different. Videos about torture and abuse posted by the perpetrators of monstrous acts of violence against captured servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the DPR and the LPR are widely known on the Internet. Numerous cases of beatings, deliberate infliction of injuries, extrajudicial executions, and failure to provide medical assistance to our servicemen have been recorded.

In addition, the Ukrainian Nazis exert psychological pressure on the relatives of delayed servicemen, extorting money from them is widely practiced.

I would like to share with you statistical data summarized by the results of a survey of servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, DPR and LPR released from captivity.

81% of servicemen were subjected to beatings and physical violence.

55% of servicemen were forcibly involved in filming propaganda videos and videoconferences.

Medical care was not provided to 46% of servicemen.

79% of servicemen were not given the opportunity to contact relatives.

19% of servicemen were provided with insufficient food or food of unsatisfactory quality. Thus, in the place of detention of detainees belonging to the SBU in Kyiv, food was provided once a day: a piece of bread, 50 gr. porridge, a glass of water. At the same time, the servicemen were constantly wearing masks covering their eyes.

We regularly send information about all these facts to specialized humanitarian structures with a request to influence official Kyiv.

However, we continue to record cases of violations by the Ukrainian military of the norms of international humanitarian law, obligations under international conventions, and rules of war.

The SU uses the civilian population as a human shield, deploying heavy weapons in densely populated areas at social facilities, medical institutions and cultural heritage sites.

Shelling of residential areas in the DPR and LPR continues, including with the use of Western-made weapons.

Anti-personnel mines and booby-traps prohibited by the 1997 Ottawa Convention are used against civilians, and cluster munitions are also used.

And this is being done despite Kyiv's statements about the alleged observance of its international obligations under this Convention.

Taking advantage of the patronage of the West, the Kyiv authorities do not limit themselves to any moral or legal norms. Every day, military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and nationalist battalions commit crimes that are not properly appreciated by the international community.

Shelling of railway stations, residential areas, places of distribution of humanitarian aid and other places of mass congestion of people continues: in Donetsk, Yasinovataya, Gorlovka, Makeevka, Svyatogorsk and many other markets settlements and cities of Donbass.

At the same time, a lot of falsified information about crimes allegedly committed by servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces is posted on the Internet.

Such connivance by the international community, as well as the desire of the Ukrainian authorities to hide their crimes, in our opinion, led to the tragedy in the settlement of Yelenovka - the shelling of the place of detention of Ukrainian prisoners of war by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

I will dwell on this story in more detail.

On July 29, 2022, at 00.20, the armed forces of Ukraine purposefully delivered a blow with an American-made Hymars multiple launch rocket system at a temporary detention facility in the settlement of  Yelenovka of the Donetsk People's Republic - Correctional Colony No. 120, which is located 12 km south of Donetsk.

At the time of the strike, POWs were being held in the colony, including Azov soldiers who had surrendered.

There were 193 people in the block that was hit. Most of them were members of the Azov regiment.

As a result of the shelling, 50 prisoners of war were killed and 73 were wounded. Eight employees of the pre-trial detention center were also injured.

Please pay attention to slide #14. The direction of the roof breach and the source of fire directly indicate that the blow was delivered from the northwest direction. Shooting was carried out from the direction of Maryinka - Kurakhovo - Sergeevka - Pokrovsk - Udachnoe.

The photograph shows the characteristic fragments of a rocket that hit a building with Azov soldiers - these are fragments of the American MLRS "Haymars".

I draw your attention to the analysis of the chronology of events:

On May 20, 2022, servicemen of the Azov National Regiment who had surrendered were taken to a pre-trial detention center in the settlement Yelenovka. The Ukrainian side insisted on this particular place of detention.

On July 28, 2022, a video confession of Dmitry Kozatsky's “Azov” crimes was published.

As a result, on the night of July 28-29, 2022, a blow was struck at the pre-trial detention center in Yelenovka.

The leadership of Ukraine gave the order to launch a missile attack, as the captured militants of the Azov regiment began to testify, exposing their crimes, including those against civilians.

I would like to acquaint you with the statements of the Ukrainian servicemen who were in the pre-trial detention center in the settlement. Yelenovka.

Currently, many Ukrainian servicemen voluntarily lay down their arms, knowing about the truly humane attitude towards prisoners of war on the Russian side. The provocation in Yelenovka is intended to intimidate the servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and is an attempt to counteract their surrender.

According to the already established practice, the Ukrainian authorities, without providing any evidence, are trying to shift the responsibility for the death of Ukrainian prisoners of war to the Russian Federation.

Unfortunately, representatives of the leadership of Western countries are increasingly joining the chorus of unsubstantiated accusations against us.

At the same time, the United States indirectly admitted to the fact of attacking Yelenovka by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The Pentagon website posted a statement by a senior US Department of Defense official that the quote: "if this happened - a Ukrainian strike, they did not want to do it ..." end of quote. We regard this statement as a clumsy attempt to justify the provocation of the Kyiv regime.

According to the US, the Hymars system is highly accurate and hits exactly the targets they were aimed at.

At the same time, Kyiv emphasizes that when planning a fire engagement, the Armed Forces of Ukraine actively use space and aerial reconnaissance data received from the US Armed Forces and their allies, and US representatives are preparing tasks for firing. The totality of these facts only confirms the guilt of the Kyiv regime in the murder of its citizens.

Concluding my briefing, I would like to once again note the reasons why the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked the pre-trial detention center in the settlement. Yelenovka.

Kyiv authorities seek to eliminate witnesses and perpetrators of their crimes against their own people.

Zelensky advocates that the Western community should give a unified assessment that coincides with the Ukrainian interpretation of these events, accusing the Russian side of attacking Yelenovka.

As for the goals of the special military operation, they will be fulfilled in full.

Thank you for attention!