The death of a Ukrainian prisoner of war in Russian custody was caused by multiple rib fractures and a chest injury, according to an autopsy carried out by a Ukrainian medical examiner, Azov Brigade deputy commander Sviatoslav Palamar said on Wednesday.
Oleksandr Ishchenko, who served in Ukraine’s Azov Brigade until he was captured by Russian troops during the Battle of Mariupol in 2022, was reported to have died in custody while awaiting trial in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don by Russian independent media outlet Mediazona on 31 July.
According to the medical report, conducted after his body was returned to Ukraine, Ishchenko suffered a fatal chest injury after “contact with a blunt object”. His date of death was given as 22 July, though the date on which Ishchenko’s body was returned to the Ukrainian authorities is not known.
“This is not just another cynical Russian violation of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War,” Palamar wrote on Wednesday, “This is a blow to human honour and dignity, to international law, to the principles and values that we defend at the front.”
Ishchenko, who joined the Azov Brigade as a driver the day after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, died while awaiting trial alongside 23 other Ukrainian POWs on charges of attempting to seize power using force, participation in the activities of a terrorist organisation, and undergoing terror training.
International human rights organisation Memorial considers the defendants to be political prisoners and has described the Russian Supreme Court’s decision to declare the Azov Brigade a terrorist organisation as “unlawful”.