Dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed or wounded in Russian-occupied Olenivka, Donetsk region, on July 28, pth attack, for which Ukraine and Russia blame each other. The available evidence seems to support Ukraine’s claim more than the Russians, but as yet from independent sources this is difficult to verify.
According to the latest data, at least 40 people have diedand 75 others were injured.
This is what the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) writes in its daily summary of the war that Russia is waging in Ukraine.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claims that Ukrainian forces deliberately hit the pre-trial detention center in Olenovkaholding Ukrainian prisoners of war, including servicemen from the Azov Regiment, using Western-supplied HIMARS.
RIA Novosti released video footage from the detention center that showed fire damage, but not the kind a HIMARS strike would likely cause. “Novosti” also published footage of fragments of a HIMARS missile, but did not provide evidence that the fragments were found in Olenivka.
The ambassador of the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) to Russia, Leonid Miroshnik, claims that Ukrainian forces have hit the center in advance detention to eliminate evidence of rendition of Ukrainians and prevent prisoners of war from speaking out against the Ukrainian government.
The Ukrainian General Staff said Russian forces carried out the attack as a false flag operation, to cover up Russian war crimes, cut off Western arms supplies, discredit Ukrainian forces, and incite social tensions in Ukrainian society.
Ukraine’s General Staff said a deliberate explosion occurred near the newly built penal colony where Russian forces had transferred Ukrainian prisoners of war a few days earlier. The Ukrainian General Staff also noted that the Ukrainian analysis of the damage to the building, the intercepted telephone conversations between Russian servicemen, the lack of reports of shelling in Olenivka and the lack of casualties among Russian personnel serving in the penal colony point to a deliberate Russian “terrorist act” as cause of the accident.
Ukraine’s Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) accused the head of the Wagner group Yevgeny Prigozhin of ordering the “terrorist act” without consulting the Russian Ministry of Defense to cover up the embezzlement of funds allocated for the maintenance of Ukrainian prisoners of war, before an official inspection on 1 September. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said the blast killed at least 40 and wounded 130 Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Ukraine accuses Russia of genocide before the Security Council
Crimes are committed daily, if not hourly, the Ukrainian representative said
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Russian troops also continue to restrict the use of Ukrainian currency and are trying to impose rubleization on the occupied territories, but they may have limited access to cash rubles.
The head of the Luhansk Oblast administration, Sergey Haydai, said on July 29 that Russian occupation forces had not installed or serviced any ATMs in Kremina, Rubizhne or Popasna since they captured those cities in May, and that the situation was similar in Severodonetsk and Lisichansk.
Haidai said that the Russian occupiers are trying to issue cash pensions to civilians in the occupied areasbut can only provide pensions by post.
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