The head of the ICRC discussed in Moscow the protection of civilians in Ukraine

The chairman of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer, said today that he had discussed with his Russian counterparts the need to protect civilians in the conflict in Ukraine.

“Of course we discussed international humanitarian law, the Geneva Convention on the conduct of hostilities,” and “civilians must be protected,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference.

Moscow systematically denies responsibility for civilian casualties in Ukraine, blaming “Nazis” or Ukrainian “nationalists” who install weapons systems in residential areas and use the population as human shields.

Maurer added that he has another scheduled meeting at the Russian Ministry of Defense.

He also said that he had discussed with Lavrov the issue of “prisoners of war, civilians held in Russia and Ukraine”, as well as the issue of repatriation of the bodies of soldiers killed, as well as no reliable estimate of the number of deaths in a month. war has not been made public either by one side or the other.

The Red Cross official also said that in Ukraine “the populations are exposed to military operations in urban areas, they are trapped between the front lines”.

As he said, Mariupol, which is under siege by Russian forces and pro-Russian separatists, has a great deal of ‘visibility’ internationally, “but it is not the only place of concern” in Ukraine.

Lavrov estimated that Maurer came “at the right time”.

The Russian Foreign Minister once again accused the Ukrainian authorities of obstructing the evacuation of civilians to areas under Russian control, while Kyiv wants to evacuate its citizens to areas under its control.