GENEVA (Reuters) – The UN human rights chief on Tuesday demanded accountability for the deaths of 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war last year in an explosion at a Donetsk military base, rejecting Moscow’s claim that they were killed by a rocket.
Prisoners held at a Russian-controlled detention center in Olenivka, in the eastern Donetsk region, were killed in an apparent explosion on July 28-29 2022. Unconfirmed Russian video footage showed the charred remains of the prison and charred corpses.
Russia’s defense minister said at the time that an American-made HIMARS rocket strike was responsible. Kyiv, which has always raised the issue, maintained that Russia carried out the explosion in the Olenivka prison in order to hide the ill-treatment of Ukrainian hostages kept inside.
Russia’s defense ministry did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment. Moscow has previously denied mistreating POWs.
“Prisoners of war who were injured or died in Olenivka, as well as their family members, deserve the truth to be known, and those responsible for violations of international law must be held accountable,” said High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk in a statement sent to journalists.
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The UN rights group, which conducted extensive interviews with survivors and analyzed additional information, added that the incident “was not caused by a HIMARS rocket”.
It said it has not explained the cause of the explosion but will continue to follow the incident. Russia has not granted requests for access to areas of Ukraine under temporary Russian control and has provided satisfactory security guarantees for visits to the area, the statement added.
The UN rights office previously said that both Russia and Ukraine abused prisoners of war during the war, although the former did so on a larger scale.
(Reporting by Emma Farge; additional reporting by Max Hunder in Kyiv; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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