How much Ukraine spends on Russian prisoners: official data released
27 December 2024 14:51
Between March 2022 and June 2024, the Ministry of Justice created 4 camps for holding prisoners of war and additionally organized their accommodation, security and medical care in more than fifty stations created in penitentiary institutions. This is reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to the data of the Accounting Chamber.
“UAH 294.2 million was directly allocated for these purposes,” the Accounting Chamber said.
It is noted that charitable organizations and foreign partners, in particular the International Committee of the Red Cross, provided significant support to ensure proper conditions for the detention of prisoners.
At the same time, the audit found that the Ministry of Justice should address the issue of converting institutions into camps more comprehensively, including a strategy for their use in the postwar period.
Based on the results of the audit, the Accounting Chamber provided recommendations that will, in particular, strengthen control and accountability of the Ministry of Justice, ensure separate accounting of expenses for the detention of prisoners of war and transparency of the use of these funds.
“We have provided recommendations to the objects of control, the implementation of which will allow us to document Ukraine’s expenses for the maintenance of prisoners of war, which will become part of financial claims against the aggressor state in the future. Our evidence in this regard must be strong and irrefutable,” said Kyrylo Klymenko, a member of the Accounting Chamber responsible for the control measure.
Reference
The Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War is an international legal document adopted in 1929 as a result of the First World War and amended in 1949 as a result of the Second World War.
As a result of the full-scale invasion of Russia in 2022, Ukraine faced the need to hold Russian prisoners of war, the number of which is constantly growing. Since there was no special infrastructure for this, the government, with limited time and financial resources, organized a system of detention of prisoners of war under the management of the Ministry of Justice.
Ukraine provides Russian prisoners of war with security, proper living conditions, medical care, the right to work and other humanitarian rights guaranteed by the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
