Home › Security › Kyiv demands answers over POW's death in Russian custody
Kyiv demands answers over POW's death in Russian custody
Summary
Ukraine pressed Moscow to explain how a captured soldier died while he was being tried alongside 21 others.
What happened to Oleksandr Ishchenko? On 1 August 2024, that question was at the centre of a Ukrainian demand to Russia, after the death of the Ukrainian prisoner of war in Russian captivity was reported on 31 July 2024.
Ishchenko was being tried with 21 other captured Ukrainian troops. Russian prosecutors allege that they were part of the Azov Brigade, which they describe as far-right affiliated. Ukraine called on Russia to explain how he died.
The case is rooted in the siege of Mariupol. That siege began on 24 February 2022 and lasted until 20 May 2022, when all Ukrainian troops remaining in the city surrendered at the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works after being ordered to cease fighting. The siege ended in a victory for Russia and the Donetsk People's Republic.
The trial of the 22 captured soldiers, and Ishchenko's death during it, placed the treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russian hands under renewed scrutiny. Kyiv's demand for an explanation was the immediate response.
