UN and ICRC yet to receive Russia’s official response regarding visit to Olenivka prison camp – Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner

UKRAINSKA PRAVDA – WEDNESDAY, 3 AUGUST 2022, 20:47

Russia is yet to give an official response to the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross regarding their visit to the Olenivka prison camp, where Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed on 29 July.

Source: Dmytro Lubinets, Human Rights Commissioner in the Verkhovna Rada [Ukrainian Parliament - ed.], on air during the national 24/7 joint newscast

Quote from Lubinets: "We have not yet received any confirmations [from the UN and the ICRC - ed.]. We maintain official and unofficial communications with both organisations.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has unofficially informed us that they have gathered a team which is prepared to travel to the prison camp in Olenivka as soon as it becomes possible…meaning as soon as Russia grants them access to Olenivka."

Details: Lubinets has also said that the UN has received no official communications from Russia [regarding the potential visit to Olenivka - ed.].

Quote from Lubinets: "The announcement made by the Russian Ministry of Defence, claiming that Russia has invited the ICRC and the UN to conduct investigations [in Olenivka],  does not correspond to reality. No one has done anything to enable the visits [of the UN and the ICRC to Olenivka - ed.]."

Background:

• On the morning of 29 July, Russian-aligned propaganda media reported the shelling of a prison camp in Olenivka, Donetsk Oblast, where Ukrainian prisoners are being held. Russia claimed that at least 53 prisoners were killed.
• The Ukrainian Directorate of Intelligence believes that the killing of Ukrainian prisoners in Olenivka was organised by the Wagner Group [a Russian private military company - ed.] on the personal instructions of Yevgeny Prigozhin, without coordination with the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
• The Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Human Rights Commissioner demand that the UN and the ICRC – which acted as guarantors of the lives and health of Ukrainian fighters – send representatives to Olenivka.
• Lubinets has asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to organise his visit to the prison camp in Olenivka that was shelled by the Russian forces on 29 July. He wants to inspect the bodies of the soldiers who were killed in the shelling and to speak to those who were injured.
• On 31 July, the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation announced that it had invited experts from the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross to the Olenivka prison camp, where the Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed on 29 July.

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