The International Committee of the Red Cross’s (ICRC) behavior in Russia’s war against Ukraine has generated considerable criticism and demands that its role be properly assessed.
Among the latest initiatives aimed at clarifying the ICRC’s stance and activities is a petition dubbed Public Appeal to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from the Ukrainian Civil Society launched on March 26.
The petition calls on the ICRC and its president Peter Mauer to intensify activities, providing full-scale support for green corridors from the occupied and combat zones, territories with humanitarian catastrophes, assisting in logistics of humanitarian aid, stopping the forced deportation of people from Mariupol, Donetsk and other areas that temporarily are, or might be, under the Russian control to Russia without their freely given consent and proper documentation, etc.
The petition also asks the ICRC to explain why its mission left Mariupol as attacks intensified, effectively abandoning Ukrainian volunteers and state institutions who are now singlehandedly helping the city’s inhabitants.
The petition quotes the advisor-representative of the President of Ukraine Tetіana Lomakina, the member of the Kyiv Region Military Administration Vitalii Vlasiuk and the representative of the Council of Women of the Donetsk Region, who emphasize the low level of the Red Cross’s engagement in Ukraine.
The Red Cross’s vague, or rather, euphemistic, language such as “conflict in Ukraine” is likewise mentioned.
“We urge you to focus all your efforts on helping Ukraine, especially Mariupol which is currently the worst place on Earth. Every bit of opportunity must be used without any minute of delay,” the petition reads.
As of March 28, over 3000 people signed the petition, including President of the Cambridge Society of Ukraine Alina Sviderska, the former member of the Editorial Board of the International Review of the Red Cross Mykola Hnatovskyy, CEO of Aspen Institute Kyiv Yuliya Tychkivska, the former Minister of Economic Trade and Development of Ukraine Aivaras Abromavicius, and the Head of Independent Media Council, Ukraine, Antonina Cherevko and others.
Mauer’s visit to Russia last week, during which he shook hands with Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, thanked him for productive cooperation and sought to open a Red Cross office in the southern town of Rostov-on-Don, caused a widespread backlash.
The Kyiv Post urged Mauer and the ICRC to provide a detailed account of how the organization that has received millions in donations spends its money in Ukraine as well as explain whether he is aware of the forced deportations of Ukrainian citizens to Russia.
The ICRC is yet to provide a comprehensive response, with the organization recently denying accusations that it helped organize or carry out forced evacuations of Ukrainians to Russia, noting that it participated in the humanitarian corridors organized on March 15 and March 18 out of the northeastern city of Sumy.
In the latest development, on March 27, Ukraine officially asked the ICRC not to open a planned office in Russia’s Rostov-on-Don, saying it would legitimize Moscow’s “humanitarian corridors” and the abduction and forced deportation of Ukrainians.
The Red Cross is too important an international institution to be allowed to evade serious concern about its seemingly questionable behavior at this very critical time. Its credibility is on the line and its traditional aloofness and reliance on secrecy cannot be allowed to degenerate into a sense of arrogance and impunity.
It is accountable to both the victims it claims to assist and the donors who fund it.
