Russia did not conclude an agreement with Ukraine and Turkey when transferring the captured Azov commanders to Ankara until the end of the war and did not report the signing of any agreement. All agreements with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan were “conceptual”, therefore, by returning military personnel to Ukraine, Turkey did not violate anything. This was stated by The Insider lawyer, human rights activist Nikolai Polozov.
He emphasized that all legal relations in this case should have been regulated by an additional protocol to the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War of 1949, or the so-called Third Geneva Convention. According to the convention, Russia, when transferring captured Azov fighters to a third country, had to conclude an appropriate tripartite agreement:
“In accordance with the Third Geneva Convention, there are only two options for the return of prisoners of war. Or repatriation, when the power that holds them in captivity transfers military personnel to the country of which they are citizens – in fact, we see this as part of the exchange. Or there is such a form as "interning on the territory of a neutral power", that is, a third state.
However, Article 112 of the Third Geneva Convention states that in the event that internment occurs, an agreement must be concluded on the internment of prisoners of war on the territory of a neutral power until the cessation of hostilities between the country that holds prisoners of war, the country for which the prisoners of war are registered, and also a neutral power. We have not heard of any trilateral agreement between Ukraine, Russia and Turkey regarding the Azov commanders, and we have not seen these agreements.
Naturally, they did not conclude any agreements. That is, it was all absolutely “conceptual”. Agreed with Erdogan, handed over to him (fighters). Since there is no agreement, Türkiye is not obliged to comply with it. Ukrainian citizens were on its territory, and the Ukrainian president flew in for them. They took and gave them away, there are no problems here.
Of course, in this case, according to the mind, it was necessary to conclude an appropriate agreement, and then Turkey would be bound to this agreement. And since there is no document, in fact, these people were present as guests, as tourists. They spent a little time in Turkey, went home, that's, in fact, the whole story.
The human rights activist recalled that Russia violates the Third Geneva Convention in relation to other prisoners of war:
“The Russian Federation has not yet created an information and reference bureau for prisoners of war, hides their number, hides their location, which is also a violation of the Third Geneva Convention. In addition, mixed medical commissions have not been created, according to which the wounded, sick prisoners of war can be repatriated in accordance with the additional protocol of the convention. Such commissions should be created, they should work on a permanent basis, and those prisoners who need medical assistance should be repatriated in the first place. The Russian Federation does nothing of this.”
Polozov also commented on the information about the desire of the Azov fighters who returned to Ukraine to return to the front:
“Another point is that in the event of repatriation, the repatriated cannot be used in active military service. For example, we have repeatedly seen how released Russian prisoners of war returned to the front. That is, in this case, the Russian Federation violated these provisions of the Third Geneva Convention. Now there are statements from the Azov servicemen that they want to go to the front again. This will also be a violation, as well as on the part of Russia in such cases.
Now we see obvious violations of the Third Geneva Convention on the part of the Russian Federation, on the part of Ukraine there will be – if we see these fighters at the front again. But this, in my opinion, is not such a significant violation as illegally detaining a large number of wounded and seriously ill and not giving them to anyone, as the Russian Federation does.”
On July 8, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky announced the release of five military commanders who defended Azovstal in Mariupol – Denis Prokopenko, Svyatoslav Palamar, Sergei Volynsky, Oleg Khomenko and Denis Shlega. The President published a video in which he and the fighters fly home in an airplane. The servicemen were supposed to be under house arrest from September 2022 until the end of the war by agreement with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but after Zelensky’s talks with Erdogan in Istanbul, the fighters nevertheless returned to Ukraine.
Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov said that the return of prisoners from the Azov regiment is a violation of the terms of the existing agreements, and no one informed Russia. The pro-Russian Telegram channel "Rybar" suggested that Erdogan's actions may be related to Russia's impending withdrawal from "an extremely beneficial grain deal for him."
In May 2022, the commanders of the Azov regiment, who defended Azovstal in Mariupol, surrendered , more than a thousand of them were sent to Russia for investigative actions. According to the Russian authorities, there were 2,439 people at Azovstal, all of whom surrendered. However, in September, 215 Ukrainian servicemen, including the commander of the Azov regiment, Denis Prokopenko, who were captured by Russia, were exchanged for Viktor Medvedchuk, the godfather of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and 55 Russian servicemen. At the same time, five commanders of the Ukrainian "Azov", including Prokopenko, were left in Turkey, they were supposed to stay there until the end of the war.