Director General of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Robert Mardini intends to discuss issues of expanding access of the organization's employees to Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) during his visit to Russia.

"Yes, I'm really going to visit Russia. It is planned that it [the visit] will take place approximately in two weeks. I will ask about the possibility of meeting with officials. I intend to discuss humanitarian issues, in particular access to prisoners of war," Mardini said in an exclusive interview with Interfax–Ukraine.

The ICRC Director General is currently in Ukraine and, according to him, has already held a meeting with the families of Ukrainian prisoners of war.

"Believe me, they are all waiting with great anxiety for news about their relatives. My goal is to demand more access to prisoners of war and more humanitarian access in the temporarily uncontrolled territory of Ukraine," he said.

In total, since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, as Martini noted in an interview, ICRC staff have managed to visit several hundred prisoners of war from both sides. Thanks to this, about 3,000 families of prisoners of war received news about their detained relatives.