Azov Regiment Commander Prokopenko taken to Russia — his wife

VALENTYNA ROMANENKO — SUNDAY, 14 AUGUST 2022, 12:23

Russian media have reported that Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov Regiment, has been taken to Russia, but government agencies and the Red Cross have yet to confirm this.

Source: Kateryna Prokopenko, wife of Azov Regiment Commander Denys Prokopenko, in interview for Suspilne

Quote from Kateryna: "I only know that he was taken to Russia and, generally speaking, this has not been confirmed yet. I found out about Denys's whereabouts through Russian media. Government agencies have not definitively confirmed it to me, because it is difficult to confirm anything here. I understand that Russia has now hidden the command staff, they are hiding the other soldiers and officers and not disclosing where they are. We are waiting to see what happens next.

It's basically the Red Cross's job to answer me, but I still don't know where my husband is.  Even if he is in Russia, there is, in principle, communication with the Moscow branch of the Red Cross. But there isn’t. This means that there may be some kind of agreement with the same authorities in Russia, so as not to give out information about his whereabouts, etc."

Details: Kateryna Prokopenko complained about the Red Cross's communication with relatives. She said that there were cases when the Red Cross had called relatives and reported that their sons were in Olenivka or Novoazovsk, but these cases are very rare.

Most cases are reports of their whereabouts. But when it comes to issues of health, nutrition, food, conditions, torture, medical care, representatives of the international organisation do not have answers, although they should provide them.

The case of the tragedy in Olenivka is a vivid illustration of this.

Quote: "Why were there no representatives in Olenivka who would have seen that these people who were moved to those terrible barracks were missing from the lists in the barracks? Why didn't they monitor that they were digging holes for graves on the outskirts of Olenivka? Some independent expert party should be brought in to check the lists of dead and wounded in Olenivka provided by Russia, but this is not happening.

We thought this [party] was supposed to come from the Red Cross or the UN, but there isn’t one, so there is no faith in these lists. Anyone you ask who is in contact with the prisoners of war who were exchanged, no-one has ever seen the Red Cross, except when they were leaving Azovstal."

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