UKRAINE, KYIV, Nov 20 – “Moscow Convention,” a collection of articles based on the testimonies of former prisoners of war and their relatives, was presented in Kyiv, Ukraine, reports the Media Initiative for Human Rights about today’s presentation of the project.

“Moscow Convention” is a document with 15 stories of Ukrainian prisoners about Russia’s violation of the Geneva Conventions. Since the beginning of the war, Ukraine has managed to return 3,767 military and civilians from the Russian captivity.

The structure of the document is similar to the original text. Still, its articles describe completely different “norms” of international laws, according to the “Russian version,” including testimonies about torture of prisoners with electric shock, cutting off their body parts, moral and physical humiliation, sexual violence, and executions.

“Since the beginning of the war, Russia has been violating the Geneva Convention daily, and we see that there is no reaction from responsible international organizations. That is why we decided to create another convention, the Moscow Convention. This is primarily necessary to show the world what Russia really allows itself to do, which disregards any legal norms,” said Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, who was at the presentation.

He also added that another task of this initiative is to show the world that Russia systematically commits war crimes and [its actions] will not be limited to Ukraine if it is not stopped now.

“Any country in the world could be next. We need a more substantial response from the international community. I am sure that if, for example, there is a complete embargo on Russian oil and gas, Russia will be forced to engage in a dialogue and fulfill the agreements,” Lubinets added.

“I can assure you that Russia has not fulfilled a single article of the Convention today. It has officially violated 14 out of 16 human rights provisions,” said Tetiana Katrychenko, executive director of the Media Initiative for Human Rights.

According to Lubinets, the Red Cross representative ignored the invitation to the presentation of the “Moscow Conventions.” In addition, the organization has not yet officially stated whether Russia allows them to visit prisoners. At the same time, they also do not participate in POW swaps, Lubinets added.

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