When a prison building was destroyed by a missile strike on Friday, it appeared that dozens of Ukrainian POW were killed. Moscow and Kyiv both claimed responsibility for the attack.
The killings overshadowed U.N.-backed efforts to resume transporting food from Ukraine and mitigate an impending worldwide hunger crisis; some of the deaths were confirmed by Reuters journalists inside the dilapidated prison where the men were confined.
According to the Russian defence ministry, the jail attack in the separatist-held frontline town of Olenivka in the Donetsk region resulted in the deaths of 40 detainees and the injuries of 75 others.
According to Russian news outlets, it said Kyiv had deployed HIMARS missiles developed in the United States to attack it.
The Russian artillery had targeted the prison, according to the Ukrainian armed forces, in order to conceal the mistreatment of prisoners detained there and place the responsibility on Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for an international condemnation of the incident and claimed that Russia had committed a war crime.
Reuters TV footage showed the charred remains of a body lying on a metal bed in the middle of a burned-out building filled with metal beds. Other bodies were lined up on military stretchers or on the ground outside.
On a blue metal bench, shell bits had been spread out, ostensibly for photography. No distinguishing signs could be seen at away, and it was unclear where the fragments had been gathered from.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, eight members of the prison staff were also injured. The prison housed Ukrainian prisoners of war. Denis Pushilin, a separatist leader supported by Russia, was quoted as saying that none of the 193 prisoners were foreigners.
The Ukrainian government claims that during the invasion, Russia committed atrocities and brutality against civilians, and that it has documented more than 10,000 potential war crimes.
The attack on the prison, according to the general staff of its armed forces, was an effort to assign responsibility.
It claimed that in doing so, the Russian occupants ‘pursued their criminal intentions’ of falsely accusing Ukraine of committing ‘war crimes’ and covering up executions and the torture of detainees.
Russia has claimed it is looking into Ukrainian war crimes, denied any involvement in them, and charged Kiev with fabricating them to discredit its forces.
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