– Today I received information about the occupiers’ attack on the Olenivka prison in the Donetsk region. There are deliberate Russian war crimes. A deliberate mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war. Over 50 people have been killed, says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his daily speech on Friday. Among those killed were many soldiers who were captured during the fighting in Mariupol. 53 Ukrainians were killed in the attack and 75 others were injured. This is stated by both Russian representatives and the Russian-backed rebel groups in the self-proclaimed Republic of Donetsk. Images of what are believed to be the ruins of the prison have been shown on Russian television. Photo: AP Russia blames Ukraine A leader in pro-Russian military forces, Eduard Basurin, claimed that Ukrainian forces should have attacked their own to prevent them from revealing military secrets. Lieutenant General and spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, calls the events a “bloody provocation”. He claims that Ukraine itself has attacked the prison to scare Ukrainian forces into surrendering. Russia also claims that Ukraine used an American Himars missile system to attack the prison camp. The authorities in Moscow have opened an investigation into the case, and the state news agency Ria Novosti claims parts from American missiles have been found at the site. Rejects The claim is flatly rejected by Ukraine. The Ukrainian defense says that no rocket or artillery attack has been carried out against Olenivka. They accuse the Russian forces of carrying out a targeted attack to accuse Ukraine of war crimes and to cover up the torture and execution of prisoners. – The explosions took place in a new building, which had been prepared for the Azovstal prisoners, the Ukrainian authorities claim. The Azovstal steelworks was a hiding place for Ukrainian soldiers and civilians during the fighting against Russian forces in Mariupol. Planned attack Zelenskyi’s adviser, Mykhailo Podoljak, is calling for a thorough investigation into the incident and calling on the UN and other international organizations to condemn it. He claims Russia had transferred Ukrainian prisoners to the bombed building just a few days before the explosion and suggests it was a planned attack. – The purpose was to discredit Ukraine vis-à-vis our partners and disrupt the arms deliveries, he says. – No sound of rockets The Ukrainian security service SBU says it has intercepted phone calls which show that Russian forces were behind it. According to them, Russia may have placed explosives in the building. – None of the eyewitnesses heard the sound of rockets heading towards the prison. There was no characteristic whistling sound, the explosions occurred completely independently, says a statement from the service. SBU also points out a detail in the videos posted from the scene, where the images show that the windows in several of the rooms were intact. – It indicates that the explosion occurred inside the destroyed building, and that the walls dampened the shock waves and protected some of the neighboring rooms, they claim. Mariupol The Ukrainian forces are fighting to retain control in Donetsk in the east of the country. Together with the neighboring province of Luhansk, they make up the region of Donbas, which Russia aims to conquer. Moscow has succeeded in taking control of Luhansk, but is struggling to make further progress in Donetsk. The Ukrainian prisoners of war in the prison included many soldiers captured during the fighting in Mariupol. Many of them endured to the last in the Azovstal steelworks. Their perseverance became a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion army. In May, however, more than 2,400 Ukrainian soldiers surrendered in the city after receiving orders from Kyiv to lay down their weapons. Keeping prisoners of war in an area where fighting is going on is prohibited under the Geneva Convention. It requires that prisoners be evacuated as quickly as possible away from the battlefield.
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– Deliberate mass killing of Ukrainian prisoners of war – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
