The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don has started hearing the case of 22 Ukrainian servicemen from the "Azov" battalion, who are accused of terrorist activities against Russia, Astra reports.
Among the defendants are eight women who worked as cooks in the rear support during the deployment of the brigade at the "Azovstal" plant in Mariupol. They were detained in March 2022 while trying to cross a checkpoint on the outskirts of the city during the retreat of Ukrainian troops.
The extras in the case are accused of committing crimes by a group of persons based on a prior conspiracy, an organized group or a criminal community, undergoing training for the purpose of carrying out terrorist activities, organizing and participating in the activities of a terrorist organization, and encroaching on the life of a state or public figure.
The state prosecutor stated that two of the 24 defendants were exchanged and will not take part in the further process. Thus, the number of defendants was reduced to 22. The next court session was scheduled for June 28.
The adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, Mykhailo Podoliak, wrote on his twitter that "such mockery of combatants is an official war crime, which should receive an appropriate evaluation by the International Criminal Court."
Photos of the court held in Rostov over the defenders of Azovstal cause nothing but disgust. Polished prosecutors and well-dressed jurors with bright smiles "judge" boys and girls who resemble skeletons after concentration camps and torture. Such abuse of combatants… pic.twitter.com/qUZGVrjQ8J
— Mykhailo Podolyak (@Podolyak_M) June 15, 2023
In turn, the representative of the Ukrainian Coordination Staff regarding the treatment of prisoners of war, Petro Yatsenko, noted that international humanitarian law prohibits trials of prisoners.
"What is happening now on the territory of Russia is another flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions, rules and norms of behavior regarding the treatment of prisoners of war. The current court is only part of Russian propaganda. But it will not become an obstacle for Ukraine to return its defenders. All the prisoners will definitely be returned home. The announcement of the sentence does not prevent exchanges," he emphasized.
"No one is talking about the extraction procedure at the moment. These people are actually in captivity. I was informed from Donetsk that they started preparing colony No. 97 in Makiivka specifically, as they said, for "Natsyks from Azov", from Mariupol, to be more precise." - he adds.
We will remind that the blockade of Mariupol began at the beginning of March 2022 and lasted until mid-May, when the last defenders of the Azovstal plant left it as part of the agreement on further exchange.
On May 20, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the Azovstal plant in Mariupol had come under the control of Russian forces. The Russian military department said that a total of 2,439 Ukrainian soldiers who were on the territory of the plant "surrendered." Later, some of them were exchanged for Russian prisoners. Currently, more than 600 Azovstal defenders are in Russian captivity.
