Lawyer: Russia does not call Khyliuk a POW but cites the according Geneva Convention

Photo by UNIAN

The Russian Ministry of Defense does not explicitly say that the UNIAN journalist Dmytro Khyliuk is being kept in detention as a prisoner of war, but cites the Third Geneva Convention, which specifically concerns POW treatment, in response to his father's request.

Dmytro Khyliuk's lawyer, Oksana Myhalevych, spoke about this on Hromadske Radio at 9:30, where an IMI representative heard it.

"The letter says that he is in Russia and that according the Third Geneva Convention, all information about him must be shared through the Red Cross Committee. The third Geneva Convention is about POW treatment. That is, the letter does not call him a prisoner of war, but they do cite this convention, implying he is a prisoner of war," said the lawyer.

She also clarified that the journalist's father received a response from the Russian Ministry of Defense, signed by the deputy chief of the Russian MoD military police HQ, Major General Vitaliy Koch. Relatives of other prisoners of war or missing Ukrainian citizens have also received replies signed by this person.

The detention of UNIAN journalist Dmytro Khyliuk

On July 13, RSF reported that Dmytro Khyliuk, UNIAN journalist abducted by Russian soldiers in March 2022, is possibly in one of the prisons in the Vladimir region of Russia.

UNIAN journalist Dmytro Khyliuk has been in Russian captivity since March 2022 as a civilian hostage. Such prisoners should be released separately from POW swaps, but the Russians are not doing this.

In May 2023, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, said that he was personally monitoring the issue UNIAN journalist Dmytro Khyliuk's release from Russian captivity.

The Prosecutor General's Office has opened a case regarding the abduction of civilians on the territory of the Dymer hromada. The investigation considers journalist Dmytro Khylyuk and his father victims. The case was opened under Part 1 of Art. 438 of the Criminal Code (violation of the laws and customs of war).

Russian soldiers kidnapped Dmytro Khyliuk on February 26, 2022, in the garden of his own house in Kozarovychi. He was first kept in the occupied Dymer, and then taken to a prison in Russia.

In December 2023, Dmytro Hylyuk was awarded by the Platform of European Memory and Conscience.