Explosion in PoW camp in Olenivka was caused by Russians using thermobaric grenade launcher – Prosecutor General's Office

A reactive thermobaric grenade launcher caused the explosion on 29 July, 2022, in the penal colony in the occupied settlement of Olenivka in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, where Ukrainian prisoners of war were held.

Source: Ukrainian media outlet Ukrinform with reference to the Directorate of Information Policy of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine

Details: The soldiers of the Defence Forces of Ukraine who were being held on the territory of a former penal colony No 120 in the Russian-occupied settlement of Olenivka were killed and received injuries of varying degrees of severity in the Russian nighttime attack that took place from 22:00 of 28 July 2022 to 01:00 of 29 July 2022. The deaths and injuries are being investigated under criminal proceedings that were initiated on 29 July 2022 on the grounds of the Russian terrorist attack.

Within the course of the pre-trial investigation a comprehensive expertise of the weapons and traces and conditions of its deployment has been conducted. According to its results, the explosion was caused by the Russians using a reactive thermobaric grenade launcher.

The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine also reported that as a result of judicial molecular-genetic examinations, 33 persons who were killed in the explosions in the penal colony in Olenivka, and whose bodies have been brought back to Ukraine-controlled territory, have been identified. At the moment, 24 more bodies are being identified, and corresponding examinations of the bodies are being conducted.

In addition to this, so far 13 soldiers whom the Ukrainian authorities managed to bring back to Ukraine have been interrogated as victims. These 13 soldiers were held in one of the rooms of the former penal colony where the explosion occurred.

More details: On 28 July, the Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine reported that a notice of suspicion was served on a former head of the Olenivka penal colony who was involved in torturing more than 100 soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

According to the investigation, the head of the so-called Volnovakha Penal Colony located in Olenivka and his subordinates, mainly a junior inspector of the supervision and security department, mistreated Ukrainian prisoners of war against the norms of international humanitarian law.

Both perpetrators are evading justice in the temporarily occupied territory in the east of Ukraine. Comprehensive measures are being taken to prosecute them.

Background:

• On the night of 28 July 2022, Russia committed a terrorist attack by causing an explosion in a barrack of a correctional facility in the settlement of Olenivka, where Ukrainian prisoners of war were held. At least 53 Ukrainian defenders of the Azovstal plant died in the attack.
• On 29 July 2022, the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine reported that the Ukrainian PoWs were killed by the Wagner Group on the personal instructions of Yevgeny Prigozhin, without coordination with the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
• The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) has intercepted telephone conversations in which Russian occupiers confirm that Russian troops were responsible for the explosion in the occupied Olenivka colony.
• On 25 July 2023, Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, criticised Russia for obstructing independent investigation of the killing of Ukrainian PoWs in the penal colony in Olenivka that occurred a year prior. The UN rejected Russia’s lies about it being a "Ukrainian strike".

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