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Russia Uses Fake Red Cross Fronts to Block Access to Ukrainian POWs, Ukrainian Intelligence Reports

Russian intelligence services have created fake humanitarian organizations to impersonate the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), according to Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate (HUR) on May 28.
The report states that these entities are used to simulate humanitarian missions at detention sites where Ukrainian prisoners of war are held. This tactic allows Russia to deny access to international human rights organizations and conceal the conditions of captivity.
HUR has identified 186 such facilities where representatives of the ICRC and other monitoring missions have been systematically barred.
Russian authorities are also using these fake structures for propaganda purposes and to collect sensitive information from the families of Ukrainian POWs.

“Families must rely exclusively on official Ukrainian government channels and avoid any interaction with proxy organizations operated by Russian intelligence, regardless of their name or stated mission,” the agency warned.
The Defense Intelligence Directorate emphasized that only the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War is authorized to negotiate and organize the return of Ukrainian captives. Any information passed to Russian-controlled groups, they added, will be used against Ukraine and its citizens.
Earlier, The Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry had documented over 150 cases of Ukrainian soldiers being executed on the battlefield since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
According to Ukrainian intelligence, intercepted communications have also revealed direct orders to kill prisoners of war.
