Ukraine and Russia blame each other for the bombing. On Friday July 29, a prison was targeted by gunfire in Olenivka, in the separatist region of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, leading to a series of accusations between the Russian and Ukrainian camps. Missile fire, the origin of which is yet to be determined, killed at least forty people in this prison, where Ukrainian soldiers had been incarcerated since May. Franceinfo summarizes what we know about this bombardment.
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The destroyed prison building in Olenivka
The attack took place overnight from Thursday to Friday. Explosions destroyed the building of a prison in Olenivka, a town located in the separatist region of Donetsk, a few kilometers from the front line, in eastern Ukraine.
According to Moscow, shots from a Himars artillery system, supplied to Ukraine by the United States, hit this penitentiary establishment, where Ukrainian soldiers are detained.
Russian public television broadcast images on Friday presented as those of charred barracks and destroyed metal bed frames. According to the American channel CNN (in English)footage released in Russia and shared on social media from the Donetsk region shows “a building almost completely destroyed and several corpses”.
Several dozen Ukrainian prisoners of war died
The Russian army did not specify how many Ukrainian prisoners were detained at the time of the attack. According to Russia, fighters from the Azov battalion occupied this prison, after having surrendered to the Russian army, after long weeks of siege and resistance on the Azovstal steel site.
Still, the precise assessment of the attack on the prison is still difficult to establish. The leader of the pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, told Russian television channel Rossiya 24 that 47 had been killed, while the separatist territorial defense forces mentioned 53 deaths, adding that no guard had been killed. been killed or injured. For his part, the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, affirmed on Friday that this “attack of the occupants” did “more than 50 dead”. According to the Russian army, 75 people were also injured.
Russia denounces Ukrainian “provocation”
The Kremlin blames the strike on Ukraine. “This outrageous provocation is intended to scare Ukrainian soldiers and dissuade them from surrendering,” assures the Russian Ministry of Defence. According to him, members of the Azov regiment, detained since the fall of the Mariupol plant, are among the prisoners.
For his part, the leader of the pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, told Rossiïa 24 that the Ukrainian authorities “had given the order to eliminate those [parmi les prisonniers] who testified” abuses committed, according to him, by the Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine evokes “a deliberate Russian war crime”
The Ukrainian general staff in turn accused the Russian army of being behind this “artillery bombardment target”. According to kyiv, this attack allows Moscow to“accusing Ukraine of committing war crimes” and of “cover up the torture of prisoners and the executions” that they have “perpetrated”.
The Ukrainian armed forces claim to have no “never proceeded (…) bombing of civilian infrastructure, particularly in places where prisoners of war are likely to be held”assured the army in a press release.
Russia has committed another petrifying war crime by shelling a correctional facility in the occupied Olenivka where it held Ukrainian POWs. I call on all partners to strongly condemn this brutal violation of international humanitarian law and recognize Russia a terrorist state.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) July 29, 2022
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba immediately accused Russia of “barbaric war crime”, on Twitter, calling for the country to be recognized as “a terrorist state”. A desire shared by the Head of State, Volodymyr Zelensky. “Russia has proven through its many terrorist attacks that it is the biggest terrorist source in the world”the Ukrainian president also said on Friday, describing this bombardment as “deliberate Russian war crime“.
An attack condemned by the European Union
The European Union quickly condemned “with the greatest firmness the atrocities committed by the Russian armed forces and their auxiliaries“, in a press release (in English) of its head of diplomacy, Josep Borrell, targeting both the bombing of the prison and accusations of torture on a Ukrainian prisoner.
Appealed by reports of Russia killing dozens of Ukrainian POWs, who surrendered, were registered by@ICRC& were in Russia’s legal protection under intl humanitarian law
EU condemns in the strongest possible terms atrocities committed by Russia https://t.co/AEURHVi6JN
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) July 29, 2022
“These inhuman and barbaric acts constitute serious violations of the Geneva Conventions and their additional protocol and amount to war crimes”added Josep Borrell.