124 of 129 Returned Prisoners of War Testify to Torture and Abuse: Prisoner Exchanges and International Humanitarian Law

On June 29, 2026, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published a report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, covering the period from December 1, 2025, to May 31, 2026. According to the report, of 129 Ukrainian prisoners of war (all men) who returned from Russia during this period and were interviewed, all but 5 described in detail the torture or abuse they suffered while in captivity.

There are internationally established rules for the treatment of prisoners of war: the Third Geneva Convention of August 12, 1949 (relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War). The convention establishes an obligation to treat prisoners of war humanely and gives the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) the right to visit prisoners.

What the Third Convention Establishes

At the heart of the convention is Article 13. The English text published by the ICRC begins as follows:

Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated. Any unlawful act or omission by the Detaining Power causing death or seriously endangering the health of a prisoner of war in its custody is prohibited, and will be regarded as a serious breach of the present Convention.

Third Geneva Convention, Article 13, paragraph 1 (English text published by the ICRC)

The same article also provides that prisoners of war must be protected against acts of violence or intimidation, insults, and public curiosity, and it prohibits measures of reprisal against prisoners of war.

The convention’s principle on when prisoners of war are to be returned is in Article 118: “Prisoners of war shall be released and repatriated without delay after the cessation of active hostilities.” In other words, the convention permits holding prisoners until hostilities end, but returning them once they end is an obligation.

As for repatriation while hostilities continue, the convention mainly provides for the following cases.

• Repatriation of the seriously wounded and seriously sick. Parties must care for them until they are fit to travel and then send them home, regardless of rank or numbers (Articles 109 and 110)
• To make this determination, “Mixed Medical Commissions” are established at the outbreak of hostilities to examine sick or wounded prisoners of war and decide (Article 112)
• Parties may conclude agreements for the direct repatriation, or accommodation in a neutral country, of able-bodied prisoners of war who have been in captivity for a long time (Article 109)

The convention contains no provision setting a number or ratio for “exchanging” prisoners of war while fighting continues.

The Role of the International Committee of the Red Cross

The convention gives the ICRC two roles. The first is visiting places where prisoners of war are held. Article 126 provides that representatives of the Protecting Power may go to all places where prisoners of war are held, interview them without witnesses, and are not restricted in the duration or frequency of visits, and that representatives of the ICRC “shall enjoy the same prerogatives.” Such visits may be prohibited only as an exceptional and temporary measure, where required by imperative military necessity.

The second is acting as an intermediary for information. Article 123 provides for the establishment of a Central Information Agency for prisoners of war in a neutral country, and that the ICRC may propose such an organization to the parties whenever it deems it necessary. The ICRC operates a dedicated unit of its Central Tracing Agency for the international armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

So how much has actually been achieved in practice? A question-and-answer page the ICRC has posted on its site (updated September 18, 2026) states the following.

• From February 2022 to August 2026, it visited more than 9,800 prisoners of war on both sides — but “mainly in Ukraine”
• It has not, to date, achieved full access to all prisoners of war. In Ukraine, it visits prisoners of war and detained civilians
• Its last visit inside Russia was in 2024, and it is trying to regain access to visit detained people, including prisoners of war

On another page, the ICRC states that, as of the end of January 2025, it had more than 46,200 open cases of people missing in connection with this conflict, most of them combatants. It also states that it has informed more than 12,000 families of news of family members whose whereabouts had been unknown, and has directly exchanged 11,500 personal messages between prisoners of war and their families. The ICRC follows a policy of conducting its dialogue with the parties confidentially and does not disclose its content.

What the UN Report Records

OHCHR continuously records the treatment of prisoners of war through the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU). The June 2026 report mentioned at the outset lists the following points about Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Russia.

• From mid-November 2025 to January 2026, it recorded 18 credible allegations of the execution of 37 Ukrainian soldiers, and confirmed that at least 16 of them were executed during this period
• Since February 2022, it has confirmed the execution by Russian forces of 129 Ukrainian prisoners of war and persons hors de combat (all men)
• Since February 2022, 47 Ukrainian prisoners of war and 1 medical worker (all men) have died from torture, abuse, poor conditions of detention, or inadequate medical care
• Of the 817 cases of conflict-related sexual violence by Russian officials it has recorded since February 24, 2022, 528 of the victims were Ukrainian prisoners of war (501 men and 27 women)
• Twelve of the prisoners of war interviewed had been convicted of war crimes by courts in occupied Donetsk region. These prisoners testified to matters including confessions forced through torture and inadequate legal defense

At the same time, the report also notes that more than half of the returnees said treatment and conditions at some facilities had “slightly” improved since late 2024.

The report also records the treatment of Russian-side prisoners of war held by Ukraine. Of 134 people interviewed during this period (including 28 nationals of third countries), 75 said they had suffered torture or abuse, most of it at transit facilities without independent oversight, before being moved to formal detention facilities run by the Ministry of Justice. Since February 2022, it has recorded the execution by Ukrainian forces of 31 persons hors de combat (all men), most of which occurred in 2022 and early 2023. The report calls for all prisoners of war to be treated humanely in accordance with international humanitarian law.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, established by the UN Human Rights Council, also stated, in the release accompanying a report published in March 2026, that in trials in Russia and Russian-occupied areas, Russian authorities had systematically submitted evidence obtained through torture, depriving civilians and prisoners of war of basic fair-trial guarantees, and found this to be a serious violation of international humanitarian law amounting to a war crime.

Ukraine’s Point of Contact

In Ukraine, shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion, the Cabinet of Ministers established the “Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War” by Resolution No. 257 of March 11, 2022. According to the headquarters’ official site, an amendment to the Cabinet resolution in March 2024 extended its work to also cover the families of civilians unlawfully deprived of their liberty and the families of missing persons. It also explains that it has set up consultation points in Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, and Vinnytsia, and has used the Mixed Medical Commission mechanism in cooperation with the ICRC.

The headquarters’ homepage displays “We have returned 9,726 citizens” (confirmed September 24, 2026). The word used is “citizens” (громадян), and the homepage does not show a breakdown between military personnel and civilians.

The Gap Between the Convention and Reality

The Third Convention requires that prisoners of war always be treated humanely, that the ICRC be able to see all prisoners of war, and that they be returned without delay once hostilities end. The ICRC’s last visit inside Russia was in 2024, and OHCHR continues to gather testimony consistent with its previous findings that torture and abuse of Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Russia are widespread and systematic. The testimony of people who have returned through exchanges remains one of the few available windows into the conditions of those still held.

The course of Russia’s invasion is summarized in A Timeline of Ukraine’s Independence and Russia’s Invasion.