How the Red Cross failed Ukraine.
How the Red Cross failed Ukraine.
The international organization is meant to be a beacon for international law around the globe. But it has fallen short, standing by without fulfilling its basic duties, in the Ukraine-Russia war.
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When Ukrainians were beaten to death in Russian prisoner of war camps, the Red Cross was nowhere to be seen.
The organization left Mariupol early in the full-blown war when more than 300,000 civIlians were surrounded by occupation troops, leaving them to their fates.
And it failed to do enough as evidence has piled up that Russia has violated international humanitarian law — time and time again. That’s despite the ICRC’s role being to facilitate the so-called “rules of war,” in an effort to protect human rights.
Their near-silence has given the green light for more war crimes, claim freed prisoners of war and the families of existing POWs who told their stories to The Counteroffensive.
“The Red Cross would rather let people die, as long as it maintains its reputation” for neutrality, said Ukrainian Marine Illia Iliashenko, who was released in March 2023 from Russian captivity.
The failures of the Red Cross to adequately track Ukrainian prisoners of war; facilitate communications between POWs and their families; ensure that prisoners are not being tortured; or otherwise monitor and publicize violations of international law suggest that existing institutions are not sufficient for modern warfare.
The war in Ukraine has shown that the Red Cross is not in a position to protect civilians or prisoners when a country refuses to abide by international law – which puts the very purpose of its existence into question.
The Red Cross is a primary global watchdog on compliance with international humanitarian law. Responding to criticisms that it doesn’t speak out enough, the ICRC claims to be focused on “confidential dialogue.”
“We talk about existing problems, just not with other people and not in the public space, but directly with the parties to the conflict,” the organization has said.
However, more than two years after Russia's full-scale invasion, the ICRC has shown little effectiveness in carrying out its mandate.
The Russians have tortured 95 percent of the Ukrainian POWs in their prisons, according to a UN official. At least 61 prisoners of war have been executed.
And still, the Red Cross has not publicly condemned Russia.
Illia, known by his call sign ‘Smurf,’ experienced this firsthand. He defended his hometown of Mariupol from the first day of the full-scale invasion.
Along with more than 1,900 other soldiers, he surrendered at Azovstal in the spring of 2022 when the plant was surrounded. Medicine, food, and water had nearly run out. They believed that their capture would not last long – they just needed to hold out for a few months.
One factor influencing their choice to surrender was the Ukrainian government’s belief that international organizations could be trusted to ensure Russia’s commitments to treat prisoners humanely.
“The key condition for the chosen format was the Russian side's commitments to international organizations to preserve the lives and health of Ukrainian defenders,” read a joint statement by Ukrainian government agencies in June 2022.
However, the ICRC not only failed to protect Illia and his fellow soldiers from relentless torture, but it also neglected one of its most basic responsibilities: registering them as prisoners of war. When a prisoner is taken in war, the ICRC takes down their details on a ‘POW card’, making a record of who they are.
The Red Cross arrived in Azovstal on May 17, 2022, although the Ukrainian military had begun to surrender the day before.
The ICRC blamed the timing for missing some of the POWs, claiming it could not observe the departure of all Ukrainian soldiers from the Azostal, since one or two buses with prisoners had already been taken away by the Russians before they arrived.
Smurf was one of the last to leave Azovstal, but for some unknown reason he met the same fate. As he boarded the bus after leaving the plant, Illia filled out his information and his family's contact details on a ‘POW card’, so that they could be notified of his capture.
The ICRC never informed Illia's mother that Russia had captured her son.
For almost a year, the Red Cross considered Smurf missing in action. After he was released, he tried to find out what happened.
“A representative of the Red Cross assured me that I had made a mistake somewhere and that they could not find my relatives. Then they convinced me that I had filled out a regular information card, not a POW card. It seemed to me that in half an hour they were going to tell me that I filled out an employment form,” Illia recounted his conversation with the ICRC in Geneva a year after he was released.
The ICRC refused to comment on any individual cases, including Illia Iliashenko’s, arguing that it will have an impact on “ability to access those most affected by conflict.”
And it says that it does not have the ability to ensure POW safety.
“We did not guarantee the safety of the POWs once in enemy hands because it is not within our power to do so. We had made this clear to the parties in advance. It is the obligation of parties to the armed conflict to ensure POWs are protected against acts of violence, intimidation, and public curiosity, as well as against the effects of hostilities,” the ICRC said.
The Red Cross has no public record of the number or names of the Russian POW camps it has visited. The reason for this is the policy of confidential dialogue to which the organization adheres.
“This approach is also why we often do not call out violations of the law of war publicly. Instead, our preferred approach is to go straight to the source, directly to those involved to share our concerns with them one-on-one. This approach allows us to be as frank as possible in sharing our concerns, while also not risking loss of humanitarian access to those who need our help the most,” Pat Griffiths, ICRC Spokesperson in Ukraine, told The Counteroffensive.
But the Russian-Ukrainian war suggests the opposite. Since 2014, Moscow has hardly allowed the Red Cross any visits to the POW detention sites, and Russia has provided very little information about who it has in custody as POWs.
Until 2022, the ICRC reported visiting Ukrainian POWs in the temporarily occupied territories only once.
Officially, the ICRC is very careful not to criticize Russia. It does not deny that Russia doesn’t allow them access to prisoners of war. But it also does not publicly say that it is Russia that is blocking access.
Moreover, even when the ICRC finds violations during its visits to places of detention, the mission's representatives merely pass on requests to improve detention conditions. But this is never made public.
The Red Cross has a policy of confidentiality. It does not publicly report to anyone. It keeps a record of all violations in its archives, which are not made public until decades later. The Red Cross maintains that if it starts reporting war crimes, it will lose access to all prisoners of war and communication with the party violating the Geneva Conventions.
The Red Cross does not publicly report war crimes, even when it has all the evidence to do so. Testifying before the International Criminal Court is also prohibited.
The ICRC’s lack of support frustrates many Ukrainians, especially those who have loved ones in captivity.
“We understand that confidential dialogue is sometimes an effective method. But crimes against humanity cannot be silent. Silence is permission to continue,” said Anastasia Savova, daughter of an Azovstal defender still in Russian custody.
Citing confidentiality, the Red Cross publishes joint reports for both sides of the war. The ICRC recently announced that more than 8,000 families had received information on the whereabouts and health of their loved ones. Given that Ukraine provides access to POW sites, while Russia blocks it, it is reasonable to assume that most of this data relates directly to communication between Russian prisoners and their families.
"There is an illusion that the Red Cross is effective, that they work with families, that they work with prisoners of war [from both sides]. But given the fact that this is generalized information, it would be good if at least a thousand Ukrainian families received information about their loved ones in captivity," Anastasia said.
Even after receiving information about the exact place of detention, the ICRC is unable to establish communication between prisoners and their families, although this is part of its mandate.
Throughout his captivity, neither Smurf nor his fellow prisoners have received a single letter from their families through the Red Cross. According to POW family coordinators from various brigades, only around five or ten percent of Ukrainian POWs receive letters from their families.
According to the Red Cross, Russia is blocking communication.
“In any armed conflict, the law of war is clear that prisoners of war need to be treated with dignity and are entitled to communicate with their families. Our role is to support this process where we can, where we are granted access. But the primary responsibility is with the states who are parties to the conflict,” Pat Griffiths, ICRC Spokesperson in Ukraine, told The Counteroffensive.
Meanwhile, representatives of the Red Cross movement on the Russian side contribute to the functioning of the Kremlin's military propaganda machine.
The Russian Red Cross has repeatedly violated the basic principle of neutrality. Foreign media reported on leaked Kremlin documents showing plans to finance new “puppet” Red Cross branches in occupied Ukrainian territory, replacing the work of the international Red Cross.
In February 2024, the Russian Red Cross began cooperating with the Russian state foundation ‘Defenders of the Fatherland’, which supports Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine. The European Union has included the head of the organization Anna Tsivilova, who is Putin’s cousin, on its sanction list.
In addition, in October 2022, the Russian Red Cross announced a fundraising event for the families of the Russian military. This was part of the ʼWe Are Togetherʼ campaign initiated by Putin. It delivers military equipment, food, trench tape, etc. to the Russian army. It also teaches schoolchildren how to assemble drones that can direct the fire of Russian artillery.
The Counteroffensive sent a request for a comment to the Russian Red Cross regarding its ties with the Kremlin but received no response.
The Ukrainian Ombudsman who monitors human rights violations, Dmytro Lubinets, has already called for and investigation into the Russian Red Cross, suspending its membership in the International Federation, and expelling it from the organization for violating its neutral status. This was done with the Belarusian Red Cross last December over accusations of deporting Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied territories to Belarus.
Instead, the ICRC continues to recognize the Russian Red Cross Society as part of the movement and has invited it to its international conference, which will be held for the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, this October.
“The expectation for all members of the International Red Cross Red Crescent Movement is that they adhere to our statutes and fundamental principles, including on integrity and to work towards achieving the same humanitarian goals. It’s essential that humanitarian action isn’t pulled into political dynamics,” Pat Griffiths, ICRC Spokesperson in Ukraine, said to The Counteroffensive.
Today, former POWs and families awaiting the release of their loved ones continue to draw international attention to the fate of the Ukrainians in captivity.
100 families of Ukrainian POWs recently visited the ICRC headquarters in Geneva in June 2024. They called on the Red Cross to state the impossibility of fulfilling its mandate, and asked them to condemn the torture and deaths of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
But the families left disappointed. Valeriia Tymoshenko, who shares a child with a soldier now missing in action, told The Counteroffensive:
“Imagine 150 people like I am, who passed a thousand kilometers just to visit ICRC not only to ask for an explanation. We also suggested what is possible to do, we suggested involving us. They didn't accept it at all, just ignored.”
Many Ukrainians, who have watched their loved ones facing war crimes from the Russian side, want more from the ICRC.
“As long as we remain silent, we strengthen Russia's confidence that it can do anything. The Red Cross had to draw conclusions about its activities and start acting in a different, more effective direction,” said Anastasia Savova, the daughter of an Azovstal defender still in captivity. “We don't have time to wait for confidential dialogue to work when all we see are tortured bodies.”
Update: We changed our description of the Red Cross’ mandate from the ‘enforcement’ of humanitarian law to the ‘facilitation’ of it.
NEWS OF THE DAY:
Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands. But so do parts of the Kursk region of Russia…
UKRAINE INCURSION ENTERS FIFTH DAY: A surprise offensive into Russian territory now has Ukrainian troops fighting more than 10 kilometers into Russia, the BBC reported. The Russian government has launched a so-called "counter-terrorism operation," to beat back the Ukrainian advance; the operation will allow Russian authorities to restrict the movement of civilians, and use phone tapping.
The last time an anti-terrorist operation was launched? When Wagner mercenaries were bearing down on Moscow last year.
CNN: ”humiliating for a Russian state that prides itself on protecting the motherland.”
FIGHTING NEARS RUSSIAN NUKE PLANT: Ukrainians are approaching the Kursk nuclear power plant, one of the largest in Russia, prompting the International Atomic Energy Agency to appeal to both sides “to avoid a nuclear accident with the potential for serious radiological consequences.”
RUSSIA HALTS UKRAINIAN NORTHWARD ADVANCE: Troops have stopped Ukrainians going north from the border, the New York Times, but Russian analyst furious about the suprise move. “If the Ukrainian Armed Forces spent two months preparing for this, how did we miss it?”
…BUT EASTWARD ADVANCE CONTINUES: Ukrainian forces claimed to have reached a village inside the Belgorod region. "Several mechanized and assault units appear to be part of the offensive, meaning Kyiv has probably pulled thousands of soldiers off the battlefield in eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces had been gaining ground," reports the Washington Post.
DOG OF WAR:
Today’s dog of war is Bert — a dog which evacuated with his family to Kyiv from the left bank of Kherson region in 2022.
Stay safe out there.
Best,
Tim
Substantial important reporting. You all do great work but don’t have the reach of a NYT so when a story so critical is published by you is it possible for a larger news publication or broadcaster to pick up your story and report on it? Do they just have to credit The Counteroffensive and add their own research? Seems worthwhile to make the failing of the Res Cross known to a broader audience which will bring pressure on the Red Cross to reconsider their policies. Thanks for the outstanding reporting!!!
After WWII, a friend of my dad's who had been a POW in Germany came home looking like an entirely different person. His face had been badly disfigured and when the German plastic surgeons asked the Red Cross if they would commmunicate with his wife and get pictures of him they flat out refused so he picked out a doctor and said, "That guy looks OK." so they copied his features. The people in his hometown were shocked, not to mention his wife and my dad refused to give any money to the Red Cross for the rest of his life.
I've heard some discouraging stories about them in Haiti too.