ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric is heading to Russia in a few days. As the bombings intensify in Ukraine, she is due to meet Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov next Tuesday, the Russian government announced on Wednesday.
During her trip, Ms. Spoljaric is also due to take part in a meeting of Eurasian women in St. Petersburg, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman added on social media. She also said the two officials would discuss “a large number of issues that affect humanitarian efforts around the world.”
Ms. Spoljaric has repeatedly called for greater access for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to prisoners of war held by both sides in the conflict. The organization has regularly stated its readiness to act as an intermediary in the event of a prisoner exchange.
Ukrainian figures, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, have in the past criticized the ICRC for engaging in dialogue with Moscow. The latter had been confronted with a smear campaign on social networks to which he had responded by recalling his neutrality.
The ICRC also helps relatives of missing persons to obtain information. According to figures from last August, it has established some 210,000 contacts with families since the start of the war, almost double the more than 115,000 mentioned in February.
‘People are getting to know us more and more,’ an ACR official told Keystone-ATS on Wednesday. The number of cases the ICRC is looking into is increasing significantly. Nearly 10,000 more in six months to reach nearly 33,000.
Nearly 9,700 families have received information, compared to around 8,000 in the figures published in February. A number of cases have been reported as prisoners of war.
This article is originally published on rtn.ch
