The Russian administration is arranging cages and other" court "decorations to hold a demonstration trial of the defenders of Mariupol and, in particular, "Azovstal". By doing so, Russia once again violates its agreements – this time with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN, which promised to conduct a further exchange of prisoners of war, which the defenders themselves and the entire Ukrainian society perceived as guarantees. Russia also violates the Geneva Conventions of 1949, which guarantee the rights of prisoners of war. The legal nullity of the planned trial is obvious.
This is stated in the Appeal of the initiative group "First of December" to political and public figures of the world.
"We call on you to raise a wave of protests around the world and prevent the holding of such a" tribunal", which absolutely contradicts the generally recognized international laws on the treatment of prisoners of war. We ask you to protect these particular people who have shown miracles of heroism and endurance and prevent their mental and physical destruction. Remember that Russia has already killed more than fifty prisoners of war from Mariupol and Azovstal, blowing them up on July 28 in custody in Olenivka – and this crime supplemented all the previous ones that went unpunished," the document reads.
The signatories of the appeal call on international institutions and individual Western politicians to "remember such a concept as Honor":
"You can't just throw up your hands and sign your own impotence. During the Russian war in Ukraine, the Moscow authorities so often humiliated international institutions and individual Western politicians that the world should finally remember such a concept as honor. Russian propaganda managed to attach the deterrent label "neo-Nazis" to the Azov fighters. However, in the eyes of the Ukrainian people, these are patriots who performed their military duty at the highest level of sacrifice and laid down their weapons only after the international community guaranteed their lives. Unfortunately, this label of "neo-Nazis" has become a convenient "screen" for some politicians in the world, behind which it is easy to hide their inaction."
The authors of the appeal suggest that anyone concerned about the Azov fighters' ideological posture should discard bias and take a closer look at their specific actions. And compare them with the actions of the Russian authorities and Russian war criminals, against which the crimes of the Nazis of World War II pale.
The signatories note that Russia's current war crimes in Ukraine are rooted in the lack of Justice for the crimes of the communist regime, which real neo-Nazis in the Kremlin are so proud of.
"We should immediately create a global space of mutual understanding and interaction in order to start forming a new security system. Otherwise, the Kremlin will continue to mock international law. Before Russia's cynical impunity, all the institutions that were called upon to guarantee world peace and security after World War II were paralyzed: the UN, including its Security Council, the OSCE, the Red Cross, and so on. And the more the world tries to appease Russia, trying to avoid the nuclear phase of the Third World War, the more they corrupt the aggressor and bring this war closer. The time has come to realize that we must immediately create a global space of understanding and interaction in order to start forming a new security system. Otherwise, the Kremlin will continue to mock international law, reveling in its impunity, as planned for the coming days in Mariupol. Russia has not only placed itself outside the scope of human civilization but also threatens the very existence of this civilization. Therefore, it is necessary to bring her to justice now, before she has committed something irreparable," the First of December group calls on the world.
The appeal was signed by: Olya Hnatyuk, Volodymyr Yermolenko, Yevhen Zakharov, Iosif Zisels, Igor Kozlovsky, Miroslav Marynovych, Igor Yukhnovsky, Yaroslav Yatskiv.