Russia on Saturday blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the United States for the attack on a prison in Donetsk that killed 50 Ukrainian prisoners, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
“All political, criminal and moral responsibility for the bloody massacre of Ukraine rests personally with Zelensky, his criminal regime and his supporters, Washington,” the statement said.
Moscow and proRussian separatists claim that the attack on the prison in the town of Yelenovka was carried out using Himar missiles supplied by the US to the Ukrainian army. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman General Igor Konashenkov today confirmed the deaths of 50 of the 193 Ukrainian prisoners held at the compound.
“The remains of 48 Ukrainian soldiers were found and recovered from the rubble. Also, two other seriously wounded Ukrainian soldiers died on the way to the hospital,” he said.
He announced that 73 people had to be hospitalized with serious injuries. The Russian Defense Ministry also released a list identifying the 123 dead and wounded, aged between 20 and 49.
For its part, Ukraine has asked the UN and the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) to send a mission to Donetsk to investigate the attack.
“The bombing is a cynical act of terrorism by the Russian Federation, a military provocation and a classic false flag operation aimed at covering up war crimes, discrediting the Ukrainian armed forces and increasing tensions in Ukrainian society,” the army said Defense, the security services and the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine in a statement.
The note again denies that Kyiv was behind the Yelenovka attack, arguing that the Ukrainian army has “sufficient equipment” to “precisely identify its targets.”
The fact that the detainees were transferred to the site just before the attack and the lack of hostilities in the region show that the elimination was premeditated, the statement added.
Ukrainian secret services attribute the attack to mercenaries from the private military company Wagner, which had seized a power plant in Donetsk a few days earlier.
Yesterday, proRussian separatists accused Kyiv of attacking the prison where, among others, members of the ultranationalist Azov battalion were being held in order to scare its soldiers and prevent their capture.