DISINFO: Ukraine responsible for mass murder of Ukrainian POW`s in Olenivka in 2022
SUMMARY
The Security Service of Ukraine suspects Ukrainian prison guards of the death of Ukrainian prisoners of war in the Russian colony in Olenivka on July 29, 2022. Kyiv accuses the prison guards of involvement in the death of Ukrainian soldiers, whom the Ukrainians themselves destroyed two years ago as a result of shelling the colony with Western HIMARS.
RESPONSE
On July 29, 2024, the Security Service of Ukraine issued indictments to the former leaders of the colony in the temporarily occupied Olenivka (Donetsk region of Ukraine). Russian prison guards are involved in the deaths of Ukrainian prisoners of war as a result of an explosion in the colony in July 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine is confident.
These are the first results of the official Ukrainian investigation into the mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Olenivka. According to the investigation, the explosions thundered in the colony on the night of July 29, 2022. At that time, 193 Ukrainian prisoners of war were in the barracks.
At least 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed and another 70 people were injured in a colony in the temporarily occupied Olenivka. Russia did not provide the UN with reliable information about the explosion and did not comply with requests from the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) for access to the territory of the colony.
The UN stressed that Russia took steps that impeded independent efforts to establish the facts about the explosions at Olenivka. The scene was not preserved but was instead contaminated, with physical evidence disturbed.
"Based on interviews with more than 50 witnesses and survivors, as well as analysis of video and photographic footage, the UN Human Rights Office concluded last year that the explosions were not caused by HIMARS rockets launched by Ukrainian armed forces. While the precise type of weapon and its point of origin could not be determined, the pattern of structural damage appeared consistent with a projected ordnance having travelled on an east-to-west trajectory [from Russian territory – editor’s note]," said OHCHR Spokesperson Krzysztof Janowski.
Numerous independent investigators have come to similar conclusions, indicating that it was Russia that killed Ukrainian prisoners of war in the Olenivka colony. For more details, read the Associated Press investigation, based on interviews with surviving prisoners of war.
Also read cases, claiming that Ukraine downed the Il-76 using Western weaponry and struck the Olenivka prison camp with HIMARS and that Russia treats Ukrainian prisoners of war well.