Russia is stealing and selling the organs of dead prisoners, Ukrainian POW's wife claims

Russia has been stealing and selling the organs of dead prisoners, a Ukrainian prisoner of war's wife has claimed.

According to the sinister new revelations, several corpses of dead soldiers returned by Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces to Ukraine have vital organs missing.

Larysa Salaeva, a prisoner of war's wife and head of the Freedom to Defenders of Mariupol campaigning group, said: 'It is already well-known that we receive the bodies of tortured prisoners during body exchanges'.

'We receive not only tortured bodies but also bodies, unfortunately, without organs,' she continued.

Speaking at a meeting in Ankara between representatives of the families of prisoners of war and the Ambassador of Ukraine to Turkey Vasyl Bodnar, Salaeva said she believes this confirms that the black market for organ transplantation in the Russian Federation is active.   

'And, unfortunately, it operates with our prisoners of war,' she added.

'Therefore, I believe that this must be made known to the whole world to stop this crime.'

Salaeva appealed to the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to support the creation of a medical commission that would monitor the health status of both Ukrainian and Russian PoWs.

Salaeva called on Turkey to act as a mediator to resolve humanitarian issues linked to the return of prisoners of war.

'I would also like to ask Turkey, as the patron country in resolving all humanitarian issues related to the exchange of prisoners of war, to speak out,' she said.

The mother of a serviceman told of the appalling state that troops are in when they are returned to Ukraine in PoW swaps.

'We see the state of health in which our boys return,' she said.

'It's indescribable: they are thin, they need medical help.

'Every time, their health deteriorates in captivity. It's the third year now.'

More than 10,000 prisoners of war are held by Russia, and are not all military, according to estimates.

Salaeva claims Russian flouts the Geneva Conventions and humanitarian law.

'We want international agreements to be implemented. Nothing is known about the whereabouts of the civilian population, which is a violation of international law,' said another Ukrainian source.

Bodnar added: 'This is a real pain that motivates us to work faster and stimulate our international partners to take certain actions. 

'One of the main demands is to create an international medical commission that would investigate the conditions of our prisoners of war and help them fight health problems, and this is one of the messages that was conveyed to the Turkish side'.

Under the Geneva Conventions, dead bodies and prisoners of war are meant to be exchanged only after the war. 

But in the Russia-Ukraine war, exchanges of both started in earnest after the first six months of conflict.

The last known exchange of bodies was in June when 254 fallen defenders were repatriated to Ukraine.

Russian sources denied the reports of missing organs and accused Ukraine of seeking to 'demonise' Putin's forces.

'The fake is an attempt to arouse a new wave of hatred towards Russia on the part of Ukrainian citizens, thereby hoping to once again motivate volunteers and raise the morale of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.'

It comes just as there is talk of peace negotiations to end the war, said War Against Fakes Telegram channel.

It comes after chilling video evidence emerged just two weeks ago showing the brutal execution of two Ukrainian PoW held by Putin's troops.

Two surrendering prisoners of war were seen cowering in a trench before being killed by a hail of nine shots fired by Russian soldiers near Robotyne in Ukraine's Zaphorizhizhia region.

The apparent cold-blooded killings were believed to have happened last month, but the footage has recently appeared.

'The killing of prisoners of war is a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions and qualifies as a grave international crime,' said a Ukraine report based on the distressing footage.

Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Regional Prosecutor's Office started a criminal investigation into the flouting of the rules of war and premeditated murder by invading Russian troops. 

Ukraine has also previously claimed that Russian forces are under orders from their commanders to slaughter captured Ukrainian troops. 

In March, General Dmytro Usov, head of Ukraine’s co-ordination centre, which oversees the 'bodies corridor' - where Russia and Ukraine meet to exchange bodies, told The Telegraph that a total of 2,495 bodies had been returned through the swaps.