By KYIV. Nov 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine is counting on the help of international partners in arranging a new camp for Russian prisoners of war, but the development of project documentation will be financed from the budget, the very functioning of the camp will depend on the intensity of the exchange of prisoners of war, Minister of Justice of Ukraine Denys Maliuska said.
“We count on our international partners to help us, since the camp that is now operating was equipped… with the funds of our Western partners, primarily the Red Cross and Canada. We hope that the same will happen with the new prisoner of war camp,” Minister of Justice said on the National Telethon on Thursday.
He also said: “We will not be able to completely avoid spending from the budget. At least, we think that we will need to spend several million hryvnia on the development of project documentation, and then our Western partners will pick up.”
According to Maliuska, all non-military expenses, including the costs of the prisoner of war camp, are covered by funds from Western partners.
“Why are we even forced to care about a certain level of POW camps? This is not only our legal obligation to comply with the Geneva Convention, but also the principle of who we are – barbarians as Russia or part of a civilized society,” the minister said.
Answering the question about how much it costs to maintain a prisoner of war and whether he can provide for himself by performing certain work, Maliuska said: “A prisoner of war cannot provide for himself, since the work of prisoners of war is not qualified. Accordingly, income from such activities is not significant.”
As for the costs themselves, as the minister explained, they will depend on the degree of readiness of international partners to finance a new POW camp.
At the same time, Maliuskas said: “We do not have a 100% guarantee that the second camp that we are launching will actually function for a long time, since the filling of the camps strongly depends on the intensity of the exchange of prisoners. If any large-scale exchanges of prisoners of war take place on over a short period, the need to start a new camp will be postponed.”
“Our task is to be prepared. According to our calculations, the camp will be needed in the near future, since the number of prisoners of war is growing daily, it is significant. Accordingly, we must be ready to demonstrate the conditions of detention to our partners and international organizations,” the Minister of Justice said.
As reported, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine allocated UAH 3.2 million for the repurposing of Mohyliv-Podilsk correctional colony into a camp for holding POWs. According to Order No. 1005 of November 3, the government allocated UAH 3,199 to the Ministry of Justice to implement measures to repurpose the state institution Mohyliv-Podilsk Correctional Colony (No. 114) of the Central-Western Interregional Department for the Execution of Criminal Sentences into a camp for holding POWs.
