Ukraine has filed a number of new urgent demands to the ECHR on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms against Ukrainian defenders of Azovstal. This is stated in a joint statement of the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs..

In particular, Ukraine demands that urgent measures be taken to prevent the use of Ukrainian defenders in any kind of so-called “tribunals” and other show trials orchestrated by Russian invaders..

Separately, Ukraine appealed to the ECHR with a demand to force Russia to provide information on the content and medical support that Ukrainian defenders need..

As Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba noted, in case of being captured, the defenders of Mairupol receive the status of prisoners of war, which requires proper treatment on the basis of the Third Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War of 1949.

“The holding of any trials of prisoners of war for propaganda purposes is prohibited and is equated with war crimes. We appeal to the world with a demand to use all available mechanisms to protect our prisoners of war and hold the Russian Federation and specific individuals accountable for their crimes,” Kuleba stressed..

As reported, at the end of June, Ukraine returned almost a hundred defenders of Mariupol from Russian captivity.. More than 2.5 thousand soldiers from Azovstal were captured by Russians.

On the night of July 29, the armed forces of the Russian Federation carried out targeted artillery shelling of the pre-trial detention center in Olenivka in the territory of the Donetsk region they had seized, where Ukrainian prisoners were kept, including the defenders of "