“I Urge You to Make Every Effort to Release the Ukrainian Prisoners of War And Unlawfully Detained Civilians As Soon As Possible”. Maksym Butkevych at the Special Meeting of the UN Security Council
Maksym Butkevych, a Ukrainian human rights defender, a former prisoner of war and current expert of the Center for Civil Liberties, spoke on 13 January at the UN Security Council meeting on “Violations of international humanitarian law against Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian detainees”. Maksym spoke about the situation with prisoners of war and civilians who are unlawfully detained due to Russia’s aggression.
Maksym Butkevych is a Ukrainian human rights defender, a journalist (a co-founder of the Hromadske Radio Public Organization), an expert of the Center for Civil Liberties and a serviceman. He is mostly recognized for his work in supporting refugees and internally displaced persons and for combatting discrimination. He spent over two years in the Russian captivity. In March 2023, he was sentenced to 13 years of imprisonment in a high-security prison on concocted charges of “cruel treatment of civilians and the application of prohibited methods in an armed conflict”. In October 2024, Maksym returned to Ukraine.
Nariman Dzhelial, a Crimean Tatar journalist and activist and Deputy Chair of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People who also spent several years in Russian captivity, and Valerii Horishnii, a former prisoner of war, senior sergeant, and instructor (reconnaissance officer) of the 12th Special Forces Brigade “Azov” of the National Guard of Ukraine, spoke along with the human rights defender at the special meeting of the UN Security Council in New York.
“Everyone has the same story to tell. Russian forces, besieging a city or locality, would shell it with artillery and then take hostages. While capturing the city, they would find someone to accuse of war crimes. I also met prisoners of war who were held in captivity based on concocted charges. Some were accused of collaboration with Ukraine. Others were preventively detained by law enforcement agencies because they served in the Ukrainian army or were employed in public authorities or services. They were missing while being held in prisons, nobody knew their location. I am speaking about thousands of people whose destiny is unknown.
They suffer from torture and cruel and degrading treatment, are forced to bear excessive physical loads, are subjected to electric shocks and are denied medical care, their nutrition is inadequate, etc. Testimony is extracted from them by beating them up and recorded on video. Unlawfully detained civilians and prisoners of war speak about this. I have seen all this with my own eyes. These are not some isolated cases. It is a system where investigation bodies, custodial supervisors and collaborators from the occupied territories follow the instructions from above.
All people are born equal in their dignity and their rights and must treat each other with the spirit of brotherhood. Today, the world regards this statement as a sweet idealistic text; however, I believe in these words right through my heart. Everything Russia does contradicts it. Russia consistently undermines these principles and violates international humanitarian law, in particular, the Geneva Conventions, making a mockery of them, using them only to deliver sentences to prisoners of war in falsified cases.
Therefore, I call on you to make every possible effort to release the Ukrainian prisoners of war and unlawfully detained civilians as soon as possible. It should be done immediately. In the meanwhile, it is worth creating appropriate monitoring mechanisms to control the places where these people are detained”, Maksym Butkevych emphasized.
