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| The ministry's spokesperson, Lt Gen Igor Konashenkov, also said eight prison staff had been wounded. But Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky, said the Russian allegations were "a classic, cynical and elaborate false flag operation" designed to discredit Ukrainian authorities. A Ukrainian detainee walking a dog at Olenivka prison (File photo by= Reuters) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] Russia's defense ministry says 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been killed by the Ukrainian shelling of a prison in separatist-held Donetsk. Officials alleged that 75 others had been injured in a rocket strike on the prison camp in Olenivka. The BBC cannot independently verify this claim.
Ukraine's military denied carrying out the strike and instead accused Russia of shelling the prison. It said Moscow was seeking to cover up evidence of torture at the site. "The Russian occupants pursued their criminal goals, thus, to accuse Ukraine of committing 'war crimes, and to hide the torture of prisoners and shootings committed there by the orders of the occupation administration and the command of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation," Ukraine's General Staff said.
Footage broadcast on Russian state TV shows the smoking wreckage of a building, which appears to contain some human remains. The BBC cannot independently verify the footage, but analysis suggests the building was hit with an incendiary device, not regular artillery. Daniil Bezsonov, a spokesperson for the Russian-backed separatist Donetsk People's Republic, said the strike had been a "direct hit on a barracks holding prisoners" and the number killed might increase. Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials have said that prisoners-of-war at Olenivka were tortured.
