Ukraine’s armed forces have denied responsibility for a missile attack on a prison in Russian-occupied Donbas in which Moscow claimed they killed 40 Ukrainian prisoners.
The Ukrainian military added that claims that the prisoners were killed in shelling were designed to hide the fact that the men had been “tortured and killed”. The country’s foreign minister, Dymtro Kuleba, accused Russia of a “barbaric war crime”.
Ukraine’s denial follows claims by the Russian defense ministry and Russia-backed self-styled separatist forces that Ukraine had hit a prison in Olenivka with US-made Himars rockets.
“An attack was carried out with missiles from the US-made multiple launch rocket system (Himars) on a pre-trial detention center in the Olenivka settlement area, where military prisoners of war are held Ukrainians, including fighters from the ongoing Azov battalion,” the defense ministry said at its daily briefing.
For its part, Ukraine accused Russian forces of deliberately bombing the prison as part of an “information war to accuse the Ukrainian armed forces of bombing civilian infrastructure and the population to cover up their own treacherous action.”
Images broadcast by Russian television said to be from the prison scene showed military personnel examining a building with a hole in the roof, tangled metal from bunk beds and traces of blood among personal effects. Other images showed charred bodies and dismembered limbs.
Olenivka is about 10 km south of occupied Donetsk and close to the front line. However, establishing liability is likely to be very difficult without independent access to the site.
Ukrainian troops were reportedly among those taken after fierce fighting over the Ukrainian Azov seaport of Mariupol, where they holed up for months in the Azovstal steel complex.
The Azov Regiment and other Ukrainian units defended the steel mill for nearly three months, clinging to its underground maze of tunnels. They surrendered in May under relentless Russian attacks from land, sea and air.
Many Ukrainian soldiers were transferred to prisons in Russian-controlled areas such as Donetsk, a breakaway region in eastern Ukraine run by Russian-backed separatist authorities.
Some have returned to Ukraine as part of prisoner exchanges with Russia, but the families of others have no idea if their loved ones are alive or if they will ever return home.
The announcement raises serious questions about where the prisoners were being held, under what circumstances and why they had not been moved to a safer location.
It also raises questions about the status of the killings. Under the Geneva Conventions, registered prisoners of war would not be tried for lawfully participating in a conflict.
The claim comes amid outrage over a video circulating on social media that claimed to show a Russian soldier castrating a Ukrainian captive. The gruesome video – which clearly shows the face of the alleged perpetrator as he appears to mutilate a bound man in uniform – could not be immediately verified by the Guardian, but has sparked outrage among Ukrainians.
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The videos re-raise serious questions about the treatment of Ukrainian prisoners in Russia after earlier allegations emerged about the killing of nine men in Bucha and widespread claims by human rights groups of serious human rights violations, including torture, disappearance and extrajudicial killings.
The claims of the prisoners’ deaths come amid continued fighting.
In the southern city of Mykolaiv, Russian shelling killed at least five people at a bus stop, with images from the city showing several bodies lying in the street. Although the city has been repeatedly hit by Russian forces, buses still run to Odesa and other nearby towns, often used by residents for evacuation.