Russia’s Attack on Prisons Killed and Injured More Than 100 Prisoners of War

According to the Associated Press report on August 4, Russia attacked the Olenivka prison in eastern Ukraine on August 29, killing 53 people and wounding dozens more. U.S. intelligence officials believe Russia is fabricating evidence to blame Ukraine for the massacre.

 It is reported that the Ukrainian prisoners of war in this prison include some soldiers captured during the fall of the southern port city of Mariupol. They hid with civilians for months at the Azov steel mill. Amid Russia’s relentless bombing, their perseverance has symbolized Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s aggression.

 But in May, about 2,400 Ukrainian soldiers, out of ammunition and food, gave up the fight and surrendered to the Russians under orders from the military’s top brass. As part of a prisoner exchange with Russia, dozens of Ukrainian soldiers have been taken to prisons in the Russian-held area.

 Russia claims after the massacre that the Ukrainian military used a U.S.-supplied Himars rocket launcher to attack the Olenivka prison. Ukraine’s defense ministry’s intelligence service said in a statement on Wednesday that there was evidence that local separatists had colluded with Russia’s Federal Security Service to use flammable substances to allow the fire to spread rapidly in the cells. The classified intelligence shows that Russian officials deliberately placed ammunition and debris from the American “Himars” at the scene to frame Ukraine.UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced on Wednesday he was appointing a fact-finding mission to investigate the killings in prison in response to requests from Russia and Ukraine.