Ukraine official claims Russia planning to force POWs to donate blood

Days after comparing Mariupol to the Auschwitz camp, Ukraine has now said that Russia is mulling using prisoners of war for blood donation. “The state Duma of Russia proposes to force the captured Ukrainian military to donate blood for the wounded occupiers, this fact testifies to the analogy of atrocities, Nazis in concentration camps during World War II,”, Ukrainian ombudswoman for Human Rights Lyudmila Denisova said drawing parallels between Hitler and Putin's rules. In a Facebook post, she said that it was a direct violation of the principles of the Geneva Convention. 

“This fact testifies to the analogy of the atrocities of the Nazis in the concentration camps during the Second World War,” the official wrote in a Facebook post. “Such a practice of forced donation was common in Nazi concentration camps. The prisoners of Buchenwald, who survived, mentioned that they took blood from them for the soldiers of Vermacht, while people were starving and forced to work,” she added. 

Denisova said that Russia grossly violated article 26 of the Geneva convention on the treatment of prisoners of the military. Pertaining to the same, she called for an immediate probe by the UN into Human Rights violations by the Russian Federation in Ukraine. 

What is happening in Ukraine?

This comes as the Russo-Ukrainian war continued for Day 60 on Sunday. While Kremlin's soldiers continued to shell Ukrainian towns and cities, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed the evacuation of Mariupol residents with Turkish President Recept Tayyip Erdogan. It is believed that almost 2,000 Ukrainian are holed up in the Azovstal Steel plant in the port city. Meanwhile, UN chief António Guterres has said that he will meet the leaders of both the warring sides. 

It has been 60 days since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched what he said was a “special military operation to denazify” Ukraine. The war that followed, has now left thousands dead, cities pulverized and turned the ex-soviet state into a macabre trap. The gruesome conflict has not only affected Ukraine, which was once the world’s third-largest nuclear power, but also neighbouring countries. As the war continues, Turkish President Recept Tayyip Erdogan has offered to mediate between Putin and Zelenskyy in a bid to end the war. 

(Image: AP)