Pro-Russian separatists and Russia’s defence ministry said 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been killed in a Ukraine strike on Donetsk.Russian private military firm Wagner has likely been allocated responsibility for specific sectors of the front line in eastern Ukraine, Britain’s ministry of defence.
Russia's defence ministry said on Friday that Ukraine struck a prison in separatist-held territory with U.S.-made HIMARS rockets, killing 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war and leaving 75 wounded.
Reuters could not immediately verify battlefield reports. Ukraine did not immediately comment on the Russian statement.
"A missile strike from the U.S.-made multiple launch rocket system (HIMARS) was carried out on a pre-trial detention center in the area of the settlement of Olenivka, where Ukrainian military prisoners of war, including fighters from the Azov battalion, are being held," the Russian defence ministry said in its daily briefing.
An appeals court in Kyiv has reduced to 15 years the life sentence of a Russian soldier convicted in the first war crimes trial since Russia began its war on Ukraine in February.
The trial has been closely watched as an early test of whether it is possible to conduct fair trials during the ongoing conflict and of how well Ukraine’s beleaguered justice system will stand up to the enormous task of prosecuting thousands of complex war crimes cases.
Critics said the sentencing of Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old contract soldier who pleaded guilty to killing a civilian and was convicted in May, was unduly harsh, given that he confessed to the crime, said he was following orders and expressed remorse.
His defense lawyer, Viktor Ovsyannikov, had appealed to the court to reduce the sentence to 10 years. He said it was highly likely Shishimarin would be returned to Russia in a prisoner exchange.
Ukraine military denies carrying out a strike on Ukrainian prisoners
Ukraine’s military denied carrying out an attack on a prison in separatist-held territory that Russia’s defence ministry said killed 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war, and blamed it on Russian forces.
“The armed forces of the Russian Federation carried out targeted artillery shelling of a correctional institution in the settlement of Olenivka, Donetsk oblast, where Ukrainian prisoners were also held,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement.
“In this way, the Russian occupiers pursued their criminal goals – to accuse Ukraine of committing ‘war crimes’, as well as to hide the torture of prisoners and executions…”
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s internal affairs ministry, said the allegations are fake and blamed Russia for the attack.
“All Russian media are full of claims that Ukraine made a rocket strike on prison in Elenovka near Donetsk – where Ukrainian POWs were, mostly from Azovstal,” he said in a tweet.
“Obviously, Ukrainian Army would never shoot any object like that. It is either a fake altogether or another horrible Russian crime.”
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow would soon propose a time for a call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in which Blinken has said he wants to discuss an exchange of prisoners held in Russian and US jails.
Blinken said on Wednesday that Washington had made a “substantial offer” to obtain the release of US basketball star Brittney Griner and former marine Paul Whelan, both imprisoned in Russia.
A source said that Washington was willing to exchange convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout, jailed in the United States, as part of such a deal.
Lavrov told a news conference that talks on prisoner exchanges had been taking place since a summit in Geneva last year between presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden.
He said a time for the call with Blinken was being worked out and he would listen to what his US counterpart had to say.
