Aug. 7 — The Russian army has formed new units using Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs), which is a direct violation of the Geneva Convention on POWs’ treatment, said the Militarnyi, the Ukrainian defense military outlet, referring to the volunteer corps of the Russian Defense Ministry.

According to Article 23 of the Geneva Convention, no POWs may be sent into a combat zone, nor may their presence be used to protect any locations from military operations. Also, Article 50 defines the types of work that POWs may perform, including agriculture, industrial work, civil building, transportation, and other work that is not connected to military operations.

The Russian Volunteer Corps’ website said that “Ukrainian volunteers” had been organized into several units, including battalions named after Maksim Krivonos, Aleksei Berest, Alexander Matrosov, Martin Pushkar, and Slobidskoi.

Militarnyi also said that Russian Telegram channels confirmed the creation of the units consisting of Ukrainian POWs.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) first reported that the Russians were forming units using Ukrainian POWs in November 2022.

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