No passport can shield detainees from Russian abuse, freed Ukrainian marine warns

A Ukrainian marine who survived Russian captivity has told diplomats at the United Nations that no nationality or legal status offers protection from abuse in Russian detention. Speaking at an informal Security Council meeting in New York, Khuan Leyva Garcia said he was singled out because of his Cuban background and Latino name, but insisted the mistreatment was universal.

"No passport, no citizenship can protect from being tortured, executed in Russian captivity," Garcia said. "There's no immunity from verbal, physical, and sexual abuse in Russian activity."

The briefing followed an Arria-formula meeting on Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian detainees. Ukraine's Deputy Permanent Representative, Volodymyr Pavlichenko, said Moscow used the session to deflect blame rather than engage on the issue.

"They were looking for artificial reasons why they started this war, and not even discussing the possibility of how to address the POW's return and to make the exchange all for all," Pavlichenko said.

Oleg Gushchyn, a legal counsellor with Ukraine's Coordination HQ for Treatment of POWs, contrasted the two countries' approaches. He said Ukraine operates five POW camps in line with the Third Geneva Convention, with access granted to the ICRC and UN monitoring missions.

Russia, he said, has no official POW camps and no intention of creating them. "300 places of detention. All of these places are unofficial, according to Geneva Convention," Gushchyn said, meaning no monitoring bodies have been allowed in.

Gushchyn added that Ukraine has conducted 76 exchanges, bringing home more than 9,500 living Ukrainians, and has received over 25,000 bodies from Russian captivity and the front line.