Ombudsman: Ukrainian prisoners of war still trapped in Olenivka colony in occupied Donetsk region
Ukrainian prisoners of war remain in the colony in Olenivka, occupied by Russian troops.
Ukraine's Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, said this in an interview with ISLND TV.
The ombudsman reported that the Russians took many prisoners out of the colony in small groups, doing everything to make Ukraine lose contact with them. Lubinets emphasized that, despite this, Ukraine receives information about the prisoners.
"Prisoners of war are still being held in Olenivka, but Russians transported many of them and did it in small groups of 20-25 of our prisoners of war to different institutions. Some were taken to the territory of the Russian Federation, and some were returned to the territory of Ukraine," said the human rights commissioner. "They did everything so that we lost contact with them. But we manage to get information about what is happening there."
Olenivka is the town in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, where last year, Russian troops staged a prison massacre, killing 53 Ukrainian POWs. On July 29, 2022, the Russian media reported on the shelling of the colony in Olenivka, Donetsk region, where Russian kept Ukrainian prisoners, including those from the Azovstal steelworks and Mariupol siege. Propagandists claimed at least 53 dead and blamed the attack on the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The General Staff of Ukraine refuted Russia's accusations that the Armed Forces of Ukraine carried out the attack. According to the General Staff, the Russians tried to hide the signs of torture and murder of prisoners.
Intelligence agencies believe that the killing of Ukrainian prisoners in Olenivka, Donetsk region, was organized by the mercenaries of the Wagner military company on the personal instructions of Yevgeny Prigozhin without coordinating it with the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The Security Service of Ukraine intercepted telephone conversations in which the Russian invaders confirmed that Russian troops were responsible for the explosion in the occupied Olenivka colony, which killed at least 53 Ukrainian prisoners.
Meanwhile, new satellite images of the colony before and after the killing of the Ukrainian military have been published, which show that the building was blown up from the inside.
On July 30, Human Rights Commissioner Lubinets stated that the Ukrainian side had begun returning the bodies of those killed in Olenivka Colony.
On August 23, the United Nations created a commission to investigate the attack on the Ukrainian prison in Olenivka. However, on January 5, UN Secretary-General António Guterres dissolved the mission to establish the circumstances of the death of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Olenivka because the UN mission could not deploy to the scene of the attack.
