Ombudsman on Olenivka tragedy: Russia wipes out evidence of war crime

FRIDAY, 2 SEPTEMBER 2022, 21:13

Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada [Ukrainian Parliament] Commissioner for Human Rights, believes that Russia will hide the traces of the war crime in Olenivka; only after that will it allow representatives of the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to enter the penal colony where captured Ukrainian soldiers were killed on 29 July.

Source: Dmytro Lubinets, in an interview for "Voice Of America"

Quote from Lubinets: "There are no special expectations [of the work of the ICRC and UN – ed.] because time is passing. The Russian Federation removes evidence of a war crime. 

We do not doubt what happened there. Based on the analysis of photo and video materials available in the public domain, both Ukrainian and international military experts came to approximately the same conclusion: it was a pre-planned public execution of Ukrainian servicemen from Azov [Regiment]. 

The explosion heard at the time of the attack was inside the building; it was not a rocket [thus, Lubinets rejects Russia’s statements that Ukraine allegedly landed a missile strike on the penal colony, which is now under Russia’s control - ed]."

Details: The Human Rights Commissioner noted that despite the statements of the Russian Federation, representatives of the ICRC have not yet been given access to Olenivka. The same situation applies to the UN-requested access to prisoners. 

"For sure, this will happen after they [Russians – ed.] remove all evidence of the war crime," Lubinets suggested. 

He stated that "Russia does not fulfil its obligations", which are to provide access to detention sites; to show the detention conditions of the captured military personnel; to provide detainees with the opportunity to correspond with relatives at least once a month; to provide lawyers, and so on.

According to Lubinets, the ICRC says that they are not allowed to visit the penal colony – "and that's all, there is no further response."

In his opinion, in this war with Russia, the work of international missions proves to be inefficient; this is evident from the visit by IAEA experts to Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station, which took place on 2 September.

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