$362,000 for life: why families of those killed in Russian captivity cannot prove torture of their loved ones

Her husband, Oleksandr, was taken prisoner in April 2022. The Russian side transferred his body to Ukraine in December 2023. Oksana is still trying to prove that her family is entitled to The payment of such a one-time financial assistance is referred to in CMU Resolution No. 168 of February 28, 2022 “Issues of Certain Payments to Military Personnel, Privates and Commanders, Police Officers and Their Families During Martial Law”.15 million hryvnias ($362,025) for the man who died in captivity.

"I am convinced that the experts write in their conclusions about death from a disease because the state wants to save money on payments to families like mine because there are many of us," says Tetiana T., the wife of a soldier. His body was released from captivity in March 2024.

"In order for the family to receive a payment for a soldier who died in captivity, it must be proven that the person was captured while performing a combat mission. And that the death was caused by being in captivity," explains Oksana Dohoter, a lawyer specializing in military and criminal law at Actum Legal.

But can Ukrainian experts determine the cause of death of soldiers based on the condition of bodies returned from Russia? How can the processing of medical documents affect compensation payments? Why does the Geneva Convention hinder the smooth allocation of such payments? hromadske investigated these issues,

Problems of forensic examination

"We were forced to squat 5,000 times a day in Colony No. 1 in Donskoye, Tula Oblast, RussiaDonskoye. There was an older man in the cell. He could not handle it, fell down, and we were forbidden to help him. We did squats over him until the night. I remember how his eyes gradually became glassy. His heart stopped.

A marine who defended Mariupol, who was tortured in captivityPavlo Bozhko was beaten so badly by the Russians that all his bones were broken and his kidneys failed. In the punishment cell, he was not allowed to sleep for 13 days, and he began to suffer from mental disorders. And according to Russian documents, he died in the colony from pancreatitis," says former fighter Oleksiy Anulia. In Russian captivity, he was changed places of detention six times. He was exchanged overnight on December 31, 2022.

According to one of the investigators who conducts pre-trial investigations into the cases of dead Ukrainian prisoners, Russians always indicate some kind of illness as the cause of their death: pneumonia, tuberculosis, heart failure, gastrointestinal problems, etc.

"I have the impression that our forensic experts, when the body is brought to Ukraine, simply rewrite Russian conclusions in Ukrainian and do not conduct the examination properly. The Russians wrote 'tuberculosis' for my husband, and ours repeated it," says Oksana K., wife of a prisoner of war.

However, the investigator denies this.

"We cannot blindly believe what Russian forensic experts write. After the body is returned, the examination is carried out by our specialists – within the framework of criminal proceedings regarding the death. And the registry office issues death certificates based on the conclusions of Ukrainian experts, not Russian ones," he told us on condition of anonymity.

According to Oleksiy Anulia, a fighter who dies in captivity can lie in a cell among the living for a long time until the Russians collect the body. But do they immediately hand it over to their pathologists for an autopsy? And how much time passes before the exchange takes place?

Name changed to protect identityStanislav, a forensic expert, works with bodies that are returned to Ukraine. He notes that their condition is usually terrible: they may have been buried for a long time in a temporary grave, stored outside a freezer, or frozen and thawed several times.

In addition, there are so many bodies to be exchanged between Russia and Ukraine that they can sometimes stay in Ukrainian morgues for months before they are ready for examination. This complicates the work of the expert. Tetiana T. said that forensic experts could not even stitch her husband's body together after the examination: it was like jelly.

"The examination should give the investigator an answer as to whether the injuries sustained by the person could have caused his death. There are rules approved by the Ministry of Health for the forensic examination of corpses.

If a lot of time has passed since the moment of death and the body was stored in inappropriate conditions, it is really difficult to determine the condition of internal organs and find signs of torture due to decay. For example, signs of hemorrhages or evidence of the use of stun guns disappear due to decay. And if the corpse is skeletal, it is impossible to establish the fact of rupture of internal organs as a result of beatings," says forensic pathologist Stanislav.

According to him, the Russians use sophisticated methods of torture against prisoners: hours of standing with arms raised, being in a torture chamber, endless push-ups from the floor, etc.

"This is torture that leaves no traces: the heart muscle simply cannot withstand it. But what expert can determine the cause of cardiac arrest? However, I will see croupous pneumonia on a rotten corpse, the same goes for bone fractures," the forensic expert adds.

Would he have died if not for the captivity?

For relatives of those killed in captivity, it is important not only to determine the disease that caused death. It is necessary for the forensic pathologist to record whether the person suffered life-threatening illnesses or injuries in captivity, and this is a consequence of the conditions of detention there.

"If a person is tortured with hunger for two years, for example, the cause of his death is irreversible processes in the body caused by prolonged starvation, not just a stomach disease. If a person's heart is weakened due to exhaustion or stress in captivity, then 5,000 sit-ups can be fatal for him or her.

In the expert report, the expert must state that the death occurred due to an exacerbation of the disease caused by torture. And for a pathologist to write this, the investigator must ask him a specific question about it," says lawyer Oksana Dohoter.

That is, if the expert does not link the death to captivity in their opinion, the investigator did not ask the expert about this connection.

"I can't speak for all investigators. Personally, I ask experts the questions I need to know in a particular criminal proceeding," the investigator we contacted for comment told us.

According to Oksana Dohoter, if the investigator did not ask the forensic experts the necessary questions, the relatives of the deceased should seek additional examinations. They should also request that former prisoners of war who were held in the same cell or colony with the deceased be questioned as part of the criminal proceedings.

"Every nuance is important here. For example, would a person in captivity have died of this disease if they had received professional medical care in time? Is it possible to establish signs of torture? And if the forensic pathologist writes in his conclusion that it is impossible to establish signs of torture due to the decay of body tissues, then lawyers at the trial will be able to use this fact in favor of the family's interests – if the family wants to challenge the results of the examination in court," the lawyer says.

The price of one underscore

As the investigator told us, the bag with the body, which after the exchange goes to a particular morgue, can sometimes have a tag or just a piece of paper with the name and surname of the deceased written on it, a photocopy of the Russian medical death certificate, which indicates the date, place and cause of death.

And while an autopsy can help Ukrainian experts decide on the cause of death, they have to take the Russians at their word for the date and place of death. Or not. In this case, the medical death certificates contain "unknown" in the relevant columns, as in the documents of the husbands of Oksana K. and Tetiana T.

"It turned out that my husband died unknown where and when. And his family cannot claim any payments. Although the Coordination Center and the Red Cross knew where the Russians were holding him," Oksana K. says with outrage.

Thanks to numerous petitions, she managed to get the expert to indicate the place of death in the new medical certificate as remand prison SIZO No. 2 in the city of Vyazma, Smolensk Oblast of Russia, and the date of death recorded by the Russians. Similarly, Tetiana T. 'fought tooth and nail' to have her husband's death recorded as occurring on a specific date in the Russian city of Vladimir.

"But the most important thing for the families of those who died in captivity is the column in the doctor's death certificate, which indicates what caused the person's death," says Tetiana T.

This is item 9 - "Death occurred as a result of". It has many subparagraphs that specify the conclusion. The expert should emphasize the appropriate one. In the documents of the husbands of Oksana H. and Oksana K., subparagraph 1 – "Disease" – is underlined. The forensic pathologists did not find an opportunity to underline subparagraph No. 8 – "Injuries as a result of actions provided for by law and military operations".

"So my husband was not at war or in captivity? I appealed to the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, the Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry of Health. I received the same answers from everywhere, that these instances cannot influence the decision of the forensic pathologist," says Oksana H.

Oksana K. and Tetiana T. are also seeking to underline subparagraph 8 in the medical reports. It is the official confirmation that the death occurred as a result of a combat mission. Without it, the families will not receive 15 million hryvnias ($362,710).

"An expert can underline subparagraph 8 on the basis of documents that confirm that the deceased was a soldier and was captured during hostilities. This can be an extract from an order to perform combat missions, a certificate from the unit stating that the soldier was captured while performing a combat mission, or an extract from the unit's combat orders log. Information from the Red Cross confirming that the person was in Russian captivity, information about the transfer of the body to the Ukrainian side, etc. is also taken into account. All these documents must be collected by the investigator," says lawyer Oksana Dohoter.

She believes that if these documents are not in the criminal case, the investigator has not fulfilled their duties properly. If the documents are available (for example, as in the case of Oksana K.'s husband), and the forensic pathologist did not underline subparagraph 8, this is either the expert's negligence or he is following someone's unspoken instructions.

"But the problem is that not all investigators know how to ask a question correctly, and experts sometimes do not know how to answer it properly. But, most likely, the reason is the huge workload of experts and investigators who have to work on dozens of criminal cases at the same time," the lawyer suggests. She advises the relatives of those killed in captivity to go to court if they cannot prove the causal link between the soldier's captivity and their death by other means.

The trap of the Geneva Convention

It would seem: why can't the government pass some kind of resolution that would automatically pay the families of those killed in captivity by Russian torture the same as the families of those killed on the battlefield? It would save so many resources and nerves! It turns out that this is impossible.

"Our domestic legislation cannot contradict international legal norms. The Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War prohibits torture. According to it, the warring parties cannot violate the convention, which means that torture in Russian captivity is impossible. Therefore, Ukrainians have to prove, including in court, that their relatives died in captivity from torture and inhumane conditions of detention, and not from an illness that could have killed them without captivity," explains lawyer Dohoter.

It turns out that if Ukraine wants to protect its prisoners, it must shout at the top of its voice about Russian torture.

"After Pasha Bozhko's funeral, I made a poster about our tortured prisoners to draw the attention of the public and MPs to the problems of prisoners. I asked the A temporary auxiliary body of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for coordinating the activities of various authorities, law enforcement agencies, and public associations. Formed on March 11, 2022Coordination Headquarters why the Ukrainian authorities were silent about torture and deaths in captivity. I was told that it was impossible to talk about such things because Russia could refuse to exchange bodies, and bury them on its territory, and no one would ever find out about them. But it is also not normal to keep silent when our people are killed in captivity. I'm very afraid for my brother," says Maria Barkova, a prisoner's sister.

The facts prove that Russians do respond to publicity.

Former fighter Oleksiy Anulia, who served 108 days in a punishment cell where Pavlo Bozhko was tortured, has already undergone 18 surgeries and is now preparing for the 19th. He had broken bones and vertebrae, numerous ruptures of internal organs, and the Russians tore out his nails and healthy teeth. He says that after his interviews for foreign publications about torture in captivity and after meetings with the public and politicians in 17 countries, the situation in the Donskoye colony has changed.

"According to my information, they started to beat [people] once every four days, and we were beaten eleven times a day. There is a difference. Russian propagandists have already begun to come there, and our guys are being fed better, even if it's just for show," says Oleksiy.

Perhaps the publicity will be able to prevent the deaths of Ukrainians in Russian captivity. Because no 15 million can replace a son, father, or husband.

***

hromadske asked the Coordination Center for information about Ukrainian soldiers who died in Russian captivity. The press service of the agency answered by phone that this question was not for them and advised to contact the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Main Investigation Department of the National Police said that the materials of the pre-trial investigation are a secret of the investigation and "are not subject to disclosure."

The circumstances of the death, the storage and exchange of a particular body, the specifics of the forensic examination, etc. could be learned after the investigator submits the case to the court. But at present, this is not possible either.

"As an investigator, I cannot take the case to court because I cannot complete the pre-trial investigation – I have the body, but I cannot establish who is responsible for the death. If a prisoner was tortured for several years in a row, who exactly can be considered his killer? Perhaps after the war, these names will be established. But now it's all backing into a corner," the investigator told us.

This article was created with the support of the German Federal Foreign Office.