Kyiv and UN rights office warn Russia against show trials of Ukrainian prisoners of war

The United Nations human rights office has joined Kyiv in warning Russia not to go through with its apparent plans to hold show trials of Ukrainian prisoners of war in the occupied city of Mariupol.

Russia and its collaborationist allies in Ukraine have pledged to hold an “international tribunal” into the alleged crimes of Ukrainian troops from the Azov regiment whom Moscow describes as “Nazis” – rhetoric repeated during Tuesday’s funeral for Darya Dugina, daughter of a pro-Kremlin ideologue who died in an attack that Russian officials blame on Kyiv’s security services and Azov.

The lurid Russian nationalist rhetoric at the funeral in Moscow, and the apparent preparations for Mariupol show trials, added to a febrile atmosphere ahead of Ukrainian independence day on Wednesday, when Kyiv and its allies fear Russia may launch a major wave of missile attacks against its pro-western neighbour.

“We are concerned by reports that the Russian Federation and affiliated armed groups … are planning – possibly in the coming days – to try Ukrainian prisoners of war in what is being labelled an ‘international tribunal’ in Mariupol,” Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the office of the UN high commissioner for human rights, said on Tuesday.

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She said photographs and videos from the port city, which Russian troops seized after a devastating 10-week siege earlier this year, “appear to show metal cages being built in Mariupol’s philharmonic hall, apparently to restrain prisoners of war during proceedings”.

“This is not acceptable, this is humiliating,” she added, noting that “wilfully depriving a prisoner of war of the rights of fair and regular trial amounts to a war crime” and that the detainees “have generally been held without access to independent monitors, exposing them to the risk of being tortured to extract a confession”.

Ukraine has requested urgent action from the European Court of Human Rights to ensure Ukrainian prisoners of war are treated properly in Russian captivity.

“Conducting any trials of prisoners of war for propaganda purposes is prohibited and equates to war crimes,” said Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba. “We appeal to the world with the demand to use all available mechanisms to protect our prisoners of war and bring the Russian Federation and specific individuals to justice for their crimes.”

Kyiv suspects Moscow may begin the trials around Ukrainian independence day on Wednesday, which will also be six months since Russia launched an all-out invasion of its neighbour that has killed thousands of civilians and displaced millions.

Ukrainian officials have warned people to be particularly vigilant this week, and the US embassy in Kyiv on Tuesday urged American citizens to leave the country, saying that Washington “has information that Russia is stepping up efforts to launch strikes against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and government facilities in the coming days”.

Russia says Darya Dugina was killed last Saturday by a bomb planted under her car by a woman linked to the Azov regiment who was working for Ukraine’s security services. Kyiv denies the claim and says the Kremlin is using her death to whip up public backing for its war.

“She lived for the sake of victory, and she died for the sake of victory. Our Russian victory, our truth, our Orthodox faith, our state,” her father Alexander Dugin – a prominent Russian ultranationalist and ardent supporter of the invasion of the Ukraine – said at her funeral in Moscow.