## OSCE Report Details Possible war Crimes Against Ukrainian POWs
A mission of experts – Professor Hervé Ascensio,Professor Veronika Bílková,and Professor Mark Klamberg – presented a report to the OSCE Permanent Council on September 25,2025,detailing potential violations of international law concerning the treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) by the Russian Federation. The report is titled ‘Report on Possible Violations and abuses of International Humanitarian and Human Rights Law, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, Related to the Treatment of Ukrainian POWs by the Russian Federation’.
The inquiry was launched after 41 OSCE participating States invoked the OSCE’s Moscow Mechanism on July 24, 2025, in consultation with Ukraine. This mechanism, established in 1991, allows participating states to request an expert mission to investigate human dimension concerns within another participating State.the mission’s mandate was to investigate potential breaches of OSCE commitments, human rights abuses, and violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), including possible war crimes and crimes against humanity. specifically, the experts were tasked with determining if there was evidence of a pattern of widespread and systematic torture, ill-treatment, and execution of Ukrainian POWs and soldiers *hors de combat* in Russian-occupied territories and within Russia, as well as recommending accountability mechanisms.
The OSCE Permanent Council, a key decision-making body that meets weekly in Vienna, received the findings.
The full observations of the expert mission are available here.
