AFP
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NOS News•today, 02:11
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Russia says it has officially invited experts from the International Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations (UN) to investigate the attack on the camp with prisoners of war in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk. The Russian Defense Ministry says it is doing so “in the interest of an objective investigation”.
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The ministry has also published a list of 50 POWs who were said to have been killed in the attack and 73 wounded. It is impossible to say how accurate that list is. Reuters news agency says on the basis of journalists who have visited the camp that some of the deaths have been confirmed.
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The Russians maintain that it is not they, but Ukraine who are responsible for the attack on the camp. Ukraine challenges Russian reading that Ukrainian military carried out the attack with an American HIMARS weapon system. According to Ukraine, Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group have themselves fired on the camp, partly to cover up torture of prisoners of war – also a war crime.
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Investigate and evacuate injured people
The readings from Ukraine and Russia are not independently verifiable at this time. The Institute for the Study of War, a US war think tank, does say that the visual evidence available so far supports the Ukrainian explanation better than the Russian one.
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Ukraine already made a request yesterday to the UN and the ICRC to investigate the attack on the detention camp in Olenivka. The United Nations said it would be willing to send researchers to the area if Russia and Ukraine both agree. The ICRC has offered to help evacuate the wounded.
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