Hungary literally holds former Ukrainian POWs captive – Ombudsman
The Hungarians are holding captive the Ukrainian military personnel handed over to them by russia, Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, was cited as saying by ukrinform.net.
“They are in isolation, they have a limited circle of communication, their mobile phones have been seized. We know that relatives have visited some of them. Again, we don’t know how the communication took place or how long it lasted – no details whatsoever,” the ombudsman noted.Lubinets said that Hungary had violated international humanitarian law because it is impossible to simply take prisoners of war from the territory of the russian Federation.
“We are trying to establish contact with eight former prisoners of war, citizens of Ukraine. We know where they are, but we do not understand Hungary’s position, why our diplomats have not been allowed to visit them until now. And we don’t know why these citizens of Ukraine, being on the territory of Hungary, are actually in the same situation as prisoners of war,” he said.
The Ombudsman stated that the Ukrainian soldiers no longer have the legal status of prisoners of war, but in fact Hungary treats them as such: “Then I don’t understand why they impose restrictions on them. They are free citizens. They have not committed any criminal offenses.”