The wives of Azovstal defenders ask the Red Cross to help them contact their relatives in captivity

19:37 04 July Kyiv, Ukraine

The wives and relatives of the Ukrainian defenders from Azovstal are asking the International Committee of the Red Cross for help in contacting the prisoners.

They announced this at a briefing.

Soon after the withdrawal of the Ukrainian military from the Azovstal plant blocked by the Russians, the Red Cross said that they were registering everyone, including the wounded, to help them keep in touch with their families.. They collected names, dates of birth and information about the next of kin.

However, for almost a month and a half, the relatives of the Azov people have no contact with them and, accordingly, no information about where and in what conditions the prisoners are.
"For almost three months, Denis defended Mariupol, and with him the entire civilized world with its social contracts and mechanisms for its maintenance. He completed his task, now we must complete our task - to save his life and the lives of his brothers - the defenders of Mariupol and Azovstal ... When I talked to him before leaving Azovstal, he then replied that, according to the Geneva Convention, there should be regular communication with the fighters, and ideally this is video communication.. When Russian soldiers are captured by us, we give them this opportunity. We don’t have such an opportunity yet, ”says the wife of the commander of the Azov regiment Denis Prokopenko Ekaterina.
The defenders' wives noted that the visits of the Red Cross representative to the prisoners twice a week were one of the conditions for the removal from Azovstal.
"They were promised this. Under these conditions, they left Azovstal. …We don't have it. The Red Cross did not call anyone back... The question arises - is the Red Cross really involved here and does it really monitor the observance of the Geneva Convention? The situation that generally happened with the defenders of Azovstal is non-standard, we all understand this. And we know that there are no unresolved issues in the world. We call on the Red Cross to find this non-standard solution and, finally, get into the territory where our fighters are located,” says Prokopenko.
Separately, relatives of the Azovstal defenders asked journalists from Ukrainian and world media not to forget about the prisoners.