Russia and Ukraine on Friday exchanged accusations against each other after a reported attack by Moscow on a prisoner of war detention center in Olenivka, a city controlled by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province.
The Russian Defense Ministry says attacks from Kiev with US-made Himars systems hit the site killing at least 40 prisoners and injuring another 75 overnight.
The folder alleges that the prison housed, among others, members of the Azov Battalion, a neo-Nazi group incorporated into the Ukrainian Army.
“This is a provocation aimed at scaring soldiers and dissuading them from surrendering,” the ministry said in a statement. Russian state channels have released images of burning buildings, but the information could not be independently confirmed.
Kiev has denied the attack and blamed the bombing on the Russians, saying Moscow forces attacked the prison in an attempt to accuse Ukraine of committing war crimes and hide the torture and executions of prisoners of war it allegedly carried out.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba used the episode to ask for international help. “I appeal to everyone to condemn this brutal violation of international humanitarian law and recognize Russia as a terrorist state,” he said on Twitter.
Denis Puchilin, a pro-Russian separatist leader in the region, said there were no foreign fighters there and that 193 people were being held there in all. According to Russian Defense, at least eight prison staff were also injured in the attack.
Ukraine also accused Moscow of a missile attack on a bus stop in Mikolaiv, in the southeast, near the Black Sea, which left five civilians dead and seven others wounded.
The episodes once again overshadow the imminent resumption of grain exports, agreed after a meeting of the delegation of the two countries in Turkey with mediation by Ankara and the UN last week. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the port of Chornomorsk on Friday, one of three that will reopen.
Zelenski stated that the country is fully prepared to sell the grain. “We send all signals to our partners, and our military ensures the security of the situation,” he said. “We are waiting for a signal from Turkey to be able to start.”
On another front, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who is on a trip to Uzbekistan, said Moscow would soon propose a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to discuss a possible prisoner exchange, although he thinks the possibility is unlikely.
Washington this week proposed a prisoner exchange to free American basketball star Brittney Griner and former military man Paul Whelan, both detained in Russia. To make the negotiation possible, he was willing to hand over the arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as “Merchant of Death”.
Britain, which produces daily reports on the war’s progress, said Russia had been ordering mercenaries from the Wagner Group, a private military militia, to occupy front-line positions, in what it said was a sign of the depletion of Russian troops.
“This is a significant change from the way the group has been used since 2015, typically carrying out tasks other than regular, large-scale military activity,” the British Ministry of Defence said.
