Category: Europe

B10‑0304/2025

European Parliament resolution on the human cost of Russia’s war against Ukraine and the urgent need to end Russian aggression: the situation of illegally detained civilians and prisoners of war and the continued bombing of civilians

(2025/2710(RSP))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to its previous resolutions on Ukraine and Russia,

– having regard to the UN Charter, the Hague Conventions, the Geneva Conventions and the additional protocols thereto, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,

– having regard to Rule 136(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas three years ago, on 24 February 2022, the Russian Federation launched an unprovoked, unjustified and illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, in gross violation of the UN Charter and its own international commitments, including the Helsinki Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances and the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation; whereas the Russian aggression against Ukraine started in 2014 with the occupation of parts of the Donbas region and the occupation and annexation of Ukraine’s Autonomous Republic of Crimea;

B. whereas since then, Russian forces have continued to carry out and escalate indiscriminate attacks against residential areas and civilian infrastructure; whereas heavy and intense bombardments, combined with ground fighting, have continued throughout 2025; whereas the UN has confirmed that more than 12 500 civilians, including hundreds of children, have been murdered since February 2022; whereas the actual civilian death toll is estimated to be in the tens of thousands; whereas many more civilians have been injured, tortured, forcibly ‘re-educated’, harassed, raped, kidnapped or forcibly displaced;

C. whereas while their exact numbers are unknown, thousands of Ukrainians, both military personnel and civilians, are likely to be held in captivity currently, in Russia and occupied Ukraine;

D. whereas the vast majority of Ukrainian prisoners, both civilian and military personnel, held by the Russian Federation are deprived of any recognised legal status or procedural safeguards, leaving them without rights, legal representation or the ability to contact their families; whereas in 90 % of cases, relatives do not know whether their loved ones are alive;

E. whereas there is documented evidence of repeated extrajudicial executions of prisoners of war (POWs) and civilians by members of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, as well as other grave violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions and other international humanitarian law instruments;

F. whereas the Russian authorities have launched thousands of politically motivated criminal prosecutions against Ukrainian POWs and civilian detainees, often based on confessions extracted under torture and without credible evidence; whereas these fabricated charges commonly include terrorism, espionage and treason, with the charges of treason frequently following the forced imposition of Russian citizenship in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine;

G. whereas families of Ukrainian detainees face institutional barriers to accessing legal recourse or filing official inquiries, as the Russian state requires the use of domestic digital identification platforms that are not accessible to non-citizens; whereas in some cases, relatives advocating publicly for detainees have seen their loved ones punished with extended sentences or re-arrested on additional charges;

H. whereas the death of Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna in Russian captivity highlights the grave and growing dangers faced by Ukrainian journalists held by Russian forces; whereas others, including Iryna Danylovych, Dmytro Khyliuk and Iryna and Heorhiy Levchenko, remain in detention under life-threatening conditions;

I. whereas the Russian authorities consistently deny POWs access to international organisations in an effort to hide the atrocities taking place, leaving POWs even more vulnerable to violations of international law; whereas the Geneva Conventions guarantee POWs the right to regular correspondence, access to medical care, and visits from international organisations; whereas Russia’s treatment of Ukrainian POWs amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity;

J. whereas the Russian authorities have detained large numbers of civilians in all temporarily occupied areas of Ukraine; whereas they target, among others, local authorities, civil servants and journalists; whereas the scale at which Russia is conducting these enforced disappearances against civilians is clearly in compliance with a coordinated state policy;

K. whereas in all temporarily occupied areas of Ukraine, Russian-installed proxy paramilitary structures and de facto authorities have played a key role in implementing Russia’s policy of repression and terror against the Ukrainian population by systematically engaging in intimidation, arbitrary detentions, torture and enforced disappearances of civilians under the guise of administrative or security procedures;

L. whereas many victims of enforced disappearances are transferred either to local detention facilities or deported to Russia; whereas various forms of torture are reportedly commonplace in these detention facilities; whereas civilians regularly go missing for months if not years, with some dying in detention; whereas these acts also amount to crimes against humanity;

M. whereas since the occupation and annexation of Crimea in 2014, the Russian Federation has systematically targeted Crimean Tatars with politically motivated prosecutions, enforced disappearances, intimidation and harassment; whereas Crimean Tatar leaders, journalists, civil society activists and religious figures have faced disproportionate repression, including under the guise of anti-extremism and antiterrorism charges; whereas these actions amount to violations of international human rights and humanitarian law and aim to erase the identity and presence of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people;

N. whereas cases of punitive psychiatry, including forced institutionalisation, drugging and involuntary treatment of both children and adults, have been documented in at least 42 psychiatric institutions and psycho-neurological boarding schools located in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine; whereas Russian occupying authorities have revived Soviet-style psychiatric abuse as a tool of repression, targeting individuals for their perceived pro-Ukrainian views or their refusal to accept Russian citizenship; whereas such acts represent a serious breach of the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities;

O. whereas the families are left traumatised as their loved ones are held incommunicado and the Russian authorities, in full violation of international law, refuse to provide information about people’s whereabouts;

P. whereas the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine confirmed, in its latest report of March 2025, that the enforced disappearances committed by the Russian authorities in a widespread and systematic manner against the civilian population, in the context of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, amount to crimes against humanity; whereas the same body documented countless cases proving that Russia’s use of sexual violence, including rape, as a form of torture is systemic in detention facilities and that this practice is clearly a deliberate policy, thus stressing that the Russian authorities committed the war crimes of rape and sexual violence as a form of torture;

Q. whereas the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, whose Ukraine Conflict Observatory has been documenting Russia’s abduction of Ukrainian children using biometric and satellite data and supported six International Criminal Court (ICC) indictments, has had its funding cut by the Trump administration; whereas the observatory has ceased all its work collecting data crucial for achieving accountability as of 1 July 2025; whereas the observatory’s database contains records on more than 30 000 Ukrainian children allegedly abducted by Russia from over 100 locations;

1. Condemns, in the strongest possible terms, Russia’s continued war of aggression against Ukraine and demands that Russia immediately terminate all military activities in Ukraine, unconditionally withdraw all forces and military equipment from the entire internationally recognised territory of Ukraine and compensate Ukraine for the damage caused to its people, land and infrastructure;

2. Expresses its undivided solidarity with the people of Ukraine, fully supports Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders, and underlines that this war constitutes a serious violation of international law;

3. Decries Russia’s policy of widespread and systematic use of enforced disappearance, incommunicado detention, torture and other forms of ill treatment against Ukrainian civilian detainees and POWs; demands that Russia notify the Ukrainian Government of the status of all POWs and allow international humanitarian organisations unhindered access; stresses that, under international law, Russia must provide adequate medical care to all Ukrainians in captivity and directly repatriate seriously sick and wounded POWs; urges Russia to release all unlawfully detained civilians without delay;

4. Demands the immediate release of all Ukrainian civilians held in Russian captivity who do not fall under any category for lawful detention under international humanitarian law, with particular attention to women, children and elderly individuals; underlines that their continued detention places them at imminent risk and constitutes a grave violation of the Geneva Conventions;

5. Condemns the ongoing persecution of Crimean Tatars in illegally occupied Crimea, including politically motivated detentions, torture, enforced disappearances and restrictions on freedom of religion, expression and association; calls for the immediate release of all Crimean Tatars imprisoned on political grounds and urges the EU and international organisations to enhance monitoring and advocacy on behalf of the indigenous people of Crimea;

6. Calls for the EU, its Member States and international partners to launch an urgent international campaign aimed at documenting and publicising evidence concerning the imprisonment of Ukrainian minors and elderly civilians in Russian detention, including the use of documented case studies compiled by civil society organisations; stresses the importance of visibility for accountability and rescue operations;

7. Demands immediate and unhindered access for international humanitarian organisations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, to all known and suspected sites where Ukrainian civilians are held, with particular attention to women, children and elderly people;

8. Insists on the immediate release of all Ukrainian journalists held in Russian captivity; calls for the international community to take urgent diplomatic and legal steps to secure their safety and freedom, and to ensure accountability for crimes committed against media professionals in the context of the war;

9. Strongly condemns the use of punitive psychiatry by the Russian occupying authorities in Ukraine, including the forced institutionalisation of civilians, especially children and individuals with pro-Ukrainian views, in psychiatric hospitals under inhumane and degrading conditions; calls for urgent international monitoring of psychiatric institutions in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and the immediate release of all individuals detained on politically motivated psychiatric grounds;

10. Insists that all perpetrators, in particular commanders and others within the Russian occupying forces ordering, soliciting or inducing the commission of crimes under international law, are held accountable in accordance with international standards;

11. Calls for the EU and the broader international community to use all possible judicial and non-judicial accountability mechanisms, including universal jurisdiction, to pressure Russia to immediately cease its campaign of enforced disappearances and torture;

12. Calls for the EU and the Member States to step up support for Ukraine to enable it to address the widespread mental health and psychosocial needs resulting from the armed conflict, by ensuring access to the relevant services for those returning from captivity, allocating resources to those services and enhancing their institutional coordination, legal regulation, monitoring and evaluation;

13. Regrets the decision by the Trump administration to cut the funding of the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab and is concerned about the consequent major gap in accountability efforts; welcomes the transfer of the lab’s data to Europol and calls for the EU and the Member States, in cooperation with like-minded partners, to ensure the continuation of the observatory’s work;

14. Commends the work of the ICC on its ongoing investigation into the situation in Ukraine from 21 November 2013 onwards, encompassing any past and present allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide committed on any part of the territory of Ukraine by any person; expresses concern about the worsening attacks on the ICC by the United States, and the impact this will have on the ICC’s ability to continue conducting its investigations; calls on the Commission to urgently activate the blocking statute and on the EU Member States to increase their diplomatic efforts in order to protect and safeguard the ICC as an indispensable cornerstone of the international justice system;

15. Stresses Europe’s responsibility to curb Russia’s aggression, both in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and also for the sake of Europe’s own security; calls therefore for the EU and its like-minded partners to increase their efforts to shift the trajectory of Russia’s war against Ukraine and set the conditions for a just, comprehensive and lasting peace; urges the Member States and like-minded partners, therefore, to provide Ukraine with more arms and ammunition to enable Ukraine to liberate its territory and deter further Russian attacks; notes, in this context, that a number of Member States are militarily neutral and urges them to increase their non-military support for Ukraine in line with their constitutions;

16. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the President, Government and Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and the President, Government and Parliament of the Russian Federation.