Ukraine accuses Russia of abducting civilians and using them as 'prisoners of war'

As the Russia-Ukraine war continues to escalate on day 43, the Ukrainian administration is now accusing Russia of kidnapping Ukrainian civilians. According to the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmila Denisova, Russian troops are now kidnapping Ukrainian men and passing them off as "prisoners of war". Denisova accused the Russian troops of abducting civilians while retreating from Kyiv. Accusing the Russian troops of committing human rights violations, the Ukrainian Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmila Denisova said that the retreating troops were abducting civilians from Ukraine. She said that the kidnapped Ukrainian men were being passed as "prisoners of war” and were being kept in detention centres. She claimed that these men were being used on Russian media for propaganda.

According to the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security, Denisova said, "retreating from the Kyiv region, Russian troops abducted civilian Ukrainians, who are now portrayed in the Russian media as ‘captive’ servicemen of the Armed Forces." She claimed that the Russians were disguising the civilian Ukrainians in military uniforms and forcing them to take part in propaganda videos. The Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security also claimed that Ukrainian military personnel released from Russian captivity confirmed the mass abduction of civilians. According to them, more than 40 civilian prisoners are being held in the Kursk pre-trial detention centre by Russian troops.

'Russian soldiers shot civilians in every city' says Ukrainian minister

On Wednesday, Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs, Denys Monastyrskyi, said that the Ukrainian officials are recording civilian casualties in every city the Russian forces had been. "Almost everywhere the Russian army has been, we watch the same situation: there is no city where there are no victims; there is no village where there is no destruction," he said. "There are hundreds of missing people," the Ukrainian minister said, as cited by international media.

US avers Zelenskyy could 'win' war

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has achieved “exactly zero” of his objectives in Ukraine and failed to capture Kyiv. During the regular press briefing amid Russia Ukraine war, Kirby said that Putin was unable to take the Ukrainian capital, could not topple the Volodymyr Zelenskyy-led government in Ukraine and did not “remove Ukraine” as a country. Additionally, the US Department of Defence spokesperson expressed confidence in Ukrainian forces resisting Russian troops for nearly 43 days now. Kirby said that Ukraine could “absolutely” win the war against Putin’s forces.

Image: AP