A press conference was held in Kyiv, attended by prisoners of war from the Global South – five men from Nepal and one each from Somalia, Sierra Leone and Cuba.
Source. This was announced by a representative of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War Petro Yatsenko.
International conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war prohibit the flaunting of prisoners of war. In the Third Geneva Convention of 1949, this phrase reads as follows: "Prisoners of war [...] shall at all times be protected, especially from all acts of violence or intimidation, from insults and from the curiosity of the public."
"By showing these citizens taken prisoner, we are saying that perhaps more radical and effective steps should be taken so that dozens, hundreds of these people are not deceived by agitators," Reuters quoted Yatsenko as saying.
According to him, Russia uses recruited citizens of poor countries as "stormtroopers, cannon fodder" and only a small part of them survive and are captured.
Russia calls all third-country nationals fighting on the side of Ukraine mercenaries, but Yatsenko said that the Ukrainian side treats prisoners without Russian citizenship the same as everyone else.
"Until the court recognises them as mercenaries, we treat them in the same way as other prisoners of war," he said. At the same time, according to UP, he suggested that third-country nationals could be tried for mercenarism.
The fact that Russia is recruiting citizens of other countries into its army has been reported on several occasions. Last week, Indian law enforcement agencies announced the discovery of a network of recruiters who deceived young men into travelling to Russia, allegedly to work.
In December, Nepal asked Russia to stop similar activities and return all citizens of the country who ended up in the Russian army.