Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday demanded the International Committee of the Red Cross to access a “concentration camp” in occupied Olenivka where Ukrainian prisoners of war are being held.
“Access to [the prisoners] is required, as it was stipulated. The Red Cross can make it happen. But you have to try to make it happen. Ukraine is ready to facilitate this,” Zelensky said during an address.
The Red Cross has been trying to get access to the Olenivka prison in order to assess the prisoners’ treatment after shelling hit the complex.
“I believe that the International Committee of the Red Cross is not a club with privileges where they get paid and enjoy life. The Red Cross has obligations, primarily of a moral nature. The mandate of the Red Cross must be fulfilled. It is necessary to immediately do what is completely logical for the Red Cross,” Zelensky said, noting that he met Thursday with Red Cross representatives to discuss the process.
Ukraine reportedly gave the Red Cross a three-day deadline to send a mission to Olenivka, according to a Telegram post from the head of Zelensky’s office Andrii Yermak.
“I do not understand why during this entire period the Red Cross mission has not yet arrived in Olenivka. There is no time to wait because human lives are at stake,” said Yermak in the post.
Zelensky on Thursday suggested that the Red Cross mission follow the model of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog that sent a mission to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine earlier this year.