A massacre took place very early Friday, July 29, in the prison of Olenivka, 15 km from the front line, on the side of the zone occupied by Russia. Explosions devastated a building in the penal colony where several hundred Ukrainian soldiers, taken prisoner during the surrender of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, have been detained since May. According to the Russian occupation authorities, who promised to bring some of the prisoners to justice, the attack killed 53 prisoners and injured 75 others. During the surrender, the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, had promised to very quickly exchange the prisoners of Azovstal, considered by many Ukrainians as heroes, for Russian prisoners of war.
Moscow and kyiv mutually blame each other for the massacre. A video first posted on the Rudenko Telegram channel shows images that are extremely distressing to watch. We see torn limbs and several dozen corpses lying both inside a destroyed building and outside, probably in a courtyard of the penal colony. On one wall is the inscription: “On the list: 193 / in rank: 192.” Most of the bodies are charred, a handful of faces are identifiable in the image. “They were sleeping at the time of the bombardment. The strike took place at 2 a.m. It was not just artillery, there were also rocket launcher [américains] Himars, a very accurate weapon for murders. So, dear Ukrainians, how do you find the cynicism of your leaders? »writes the author of the Telegram channel.
In a news bulletin, the state television channel Russia 1 aired other, less shocking footage from the scene on Friday morning, with the following comment: “The victims are mainly Nazis from the Azov regiment. So the kyiv regime is probably trying to erase the responsibility for its bloody crimes, because many criminals who terrorized the Donbass had started collaborating with the investigators. » Russian media broadcast confessions – visibly forced – of Ukrainian prisoners of war from Azovstal belonging to different units, testifying against their comrades-in-arms from the Azov regiment.
“Ukrainian Armed Forces did not fire any missiles”
The version of events given by the Ukrainian General Staff is radically opposed. “The Russian armed forces carried out a precise artillery bombardment against [la prison] of Olenivka, where Ukrainian prisoners are held. Thus the Russian occupier pursues its criminal objective: to accuse Ukraine of committing war crimes; cover up the torture of prisoners and the executions ordered by the command of the Russian armed forces. (…) The Ukrainian armed forces did not fire any missiles or shells in the area of Olenivka. »
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