Dawn brought the wretched news that the Russians had blown up their own prisoner of war facility, Olenivka Prison, and then tried to blame it on the Ukrainians.
My latest.
All you need to know about the Olenivka prison massacre.https://t.co/UkE95c22ga— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) July 29, 2022
From Illia Ponomarenko at The Kyiv Independent:
More than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war have reportedly been killed in what is believed to be a Russian attack on a prisoner camp in Russian-occupied Donbas on July 28. This is possibly the worst crime against captive combatants since Russia launched its full-scale war.
“It was a deliberate Russian war crime, a deliberate mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war,” said President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The attacked prisoner camp was near the town of Olenivka, some 20 kilometers south of Donetsk, the main stronghold of Russian-controlled militants since 2014. Many prisoners at the site were soldiers who took part in the intense fighting at Azovstal, a large metal plant and the last Ukrainian-held area in Mariupol.
The fight ended in May with Ukrainian command ordering the garrison to surrender in order to save their lives.
“When the defenders of Azovstal left the plant, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross acted as guarantors of the life and health of our soldiers,” Zelensky said. The president called on the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit the site and investigate the matter.
Ukraine repeatedly stated that it intended to get all the captured Azovstal defenders back home via prisoner swaps with Russia.
“Russia has proven with numerous terrorist attacks that it is the biggest source of terrorism in today’s world,” Zelensky said, adding that the international community must recognize Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Russian state-controlled media published a video supposedly showing a heavily ruined and burnt prison barrack, with scores of charred bodies in and around it. Russia claimed the attack took the lives of 53 Ukrainian prisoners and injured 75.
Russian-controlled militants in control of the area immediately accused Ukraine of an attack against its own combatants in captivity, saying the site had been hit by an American-provided high-precision HIMARS rocket system. The Ukrainian military denied any role in the incident, saying Russia killed the Ukrainian prisoners in an “intentional artillery strike.”
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry’s Intelligence Directorate also called the incident “an act of terrorism” committed by Russian forces.
According to the Intelligence Directorate, the attack was committed by the Wagner Group, the notorious Kremlin-linked mercenary army, under a direct order from Yevgeniy Prigozhyn, the group’s alleged head and close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The attack was carried out without the consent of Russia’s Defense Ministry leadership, the Intelligence Directorate said.
Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said that the destruction of the prisoner camp was likely caused by an internal explosion, not an attack.
The SBU published an audio recording of an allegedly intercepted phone conversation between two people the Service alleged are Russian-backed militants discussing the incident.
The conversation suggests that militant forces had deployed BM-21 Grad rocket launchers close to the Olenivka jail and delivered a strike upon Ukrainian-controlled territory, apparently trying to provoke a response. The attack was not returned by the Ukrainian military, according to the SBU.
No one at the scene heard or saw any signs of an incoming rocket attack, according to the conversation.
“As judged from video footage available online, the glass in some of the facility’s windows is intact,” the SBU said. “This means that the explosion’s epicenter was located inside the ruined building so that the walls absorbed the blast wave and protected the buildings nearby.”
Podolyak added that the attack was a “cynical, thought-out false flag operation.”
“We know that several days before the crime, inmates were deliberately relocated to the barrack that was later hit,” Podolyak said.
Igal Levin, an Israeli-Ukrainian defense expert, believes the Russian goal behind the latest incidents could be fostering hatred and anger among the Ukrainian military against potential Russian prisoners of war.
“(Russians) are experiencing a complicated situation in Kherson,” the expert said. “And their military grouping under blockade threat could potentially surrender. Russia is trying hard to anger (Ukrainian) soldiers and intimidate their own soldiers so that the former would not take prisoners and the latter would not even think of surrendering.”
“Again, this is not something new,” he added. “Russians have done it during their punitive operations in Ichkeriya (Chechnya).”
Much more at the link.
And the probability of a “mistake” is also very unlikely. The Olenivka jail stands alone in the steppe, and there are no potential military targets close to it.
It’s a weird “coincidence” that a “Ukrainian HIMARS” hit just one building where Azovstal soldiers were held.— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) July 29, 2022
War For Ukraine Day 156: Another Day Another Large Amount of Russian War CrimesPost + Comments (27)