ISW: Russia deploys battalion of Ukrainian war prisoners on frontline

The Russian Federation has officially deployed a battalion formed from Ukrainian prisoners of war to the front line. This is a serious violation of the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war.

On December 28, Russian media reported that fighters of the Bogdan Khmelnytskyy battalion, which was formed from Ukrainian prisoners of war and subordinated to the Cascade formation of the "Interior Ministry of the Donetsk People's Republic" (DNR), took part in hostilities for the first time near the village of Urozhaynoye in the west of Donetsk Region, Caliber.Az reports, citing a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

A day earlier, Russian media reported that the battalion had recruited about 70 Ukrainian prisoners of war from penal colonies in Russia and sent them for training, and delivered them to the Western Donetsk Region in early November.

According to ISW experts, the use of Ukrainian prisoners of war in the Bohdan Khmelnytskyy battalion is a probable violation of the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War.

The document prohibits the use of prisoners of war in military activities on the side of the authorities that captured them and also states that "no prisoner of war may at any time be sent or detained in places where he may be exposed to fire in a combat zone".

In addition, a prisoner of war must not "be employed in work that is unhealthy or dangerous in nature".