"Despite the contrary claims of the Deputy Minister of Defence of the Russian Federation in August 2022, the Russian Federation failed to fulfil its obligation to establish an official Information Bureau for prisoners of war who are in its power (Article 122 of the Third Geneva Convention), and to appoint a Mixed Medical Commission to examine sick and wounded prisoners of war (Article 112). At the same time, the Russian authorities have effectively barred relatives of Ukrainian prisoners of war from requesting information from the Ministry of Defence by requiring the use of the Russian State portal, which is in fact only accessible to Russian citizens due to authentication requirements tied to State-issued Russian credentials. In addition, the Russian Federation has so far rejected initiatives by other States to assume the role of Protecting Powers, while it is a duty as provided for in Article 5 of the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions, and it is impeding the access to most of its detention facilities by the personnel of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, the OSCE/ODIHR Ukraine Monitoring Initiative and other international monitoring mechanisms. However, the Russian Federation is already under an international legal obligation to fully co-operate with all international monitoring bodies and to remove any obstacles to their monitoring activities, notably in areas covered by the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights of 25 June 2024 in the case of Ukraine v. Russia (regarding Crimea), pursuant to the decision of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe CM/Del/Dec(2025)1521/H46-29 of 6 March 2025."
Russia’s claim about establishing an Information Bureau for prisoners of war is based solely on a single public statement and remains unsubstantiated. In practice, Russia actively restricts access to information through legislation that limits inquiries to Russian citizens.