DISINFO: Ukraine plans to pass a law to hold Russian prisoners of war hostage
SUMMARY
Kyiv is preparing a law that would prevent captured Crimean residents from ever returning to Russia. The Banderites aren't bothered by the fact that this would be tantamount to a life sentence for Russian citizens without trial. They are beasts, simply inhuman beasts. No other comparisons come to mind when reading this report from Kyiv. A bill planned for submission to the Verkhovna Rada, which would deny the return of prisoners of war mobilised from Crimea and Sevastopol, is designed to hold Russian soldiers hostage.
RESPONSE
This claim is part of a disinformation campaign aiming to justify Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and sham referendums in occupied Ukrainian territories. This narrative also denies Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine.
The pretext for the disinformation was a statement by Brigadier General Dmytro Usov, Secretary of the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War. He spoke about protecting the rights of Ukrainian citizens forcibly mobilised into the Russian army in the occupied Ukrainian territories.
General Usov stated that about 16% of Ukrainians currently held as prisoners of war are citizens of Ukraine, with 6% from Crimea. He emphasised that in such cases, "Ukrainian war prisoners are exchanged for Ukrainians" and that the state must seek a legal solution to ensure these people are not returned to Russia but remain in Ukraine under its jurisdiction. He also added that a bill is currently being developed to address this issue.
Thus, General Usov was speaking of people who are simultaneously victims of a war crime and members of the armed forces of an aggressor state. The forced mobilisation of the population of occupied territories into the army of an occupying power is expressly prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention and is considered a war crime. It is Russia that forcibly mobilises residents of Crimea and other captured Ukrainian territories and then passes them off as "Russian soldiers" during prisoner exchanges. The Ukrainian side, on the contrary, is trying to develop a mechanism that will protect their rights as Ukrainian citizens and prevent them from falling back under the control of the occupying state.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Russia treats Ukrainian prisoners of war well, that Ukrainian forces burn bodies to cover their crimes, that UN report on Russian atrocities in Ukraine is not supported by evidence, that Ukraine will build concentration camps for captured Russians, or that Ukraine violates international humanitarian law while Russia respects it.