Prosecutor’s Office: Management of Olenivka colony deliberately committed actions that led to even greater losses of Ukrainian POWs
The management of the Olenivka colony, together with representatives of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, deliberately committed actions that led to even greater losses of Ukrainian servicemen who suffered during the tragedy. It has been established that at least 9 people died as a result of the failure to provide proper medical care.
According to Censor.NET, this was reported by Dmytro Martsyn, prosecutor of the 18th Department of the Prosecutor General's Office, during a briefing.
He noted that work was done with victims and witnesses who were returned in the course of exchanges with the Russian Federation.
"Based on the results of this investigation, we found that the colony's management, acting in concert with other, unfortunately, currently unidentified representatives of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service, deliberately committed acts and omissions that led to even greater losses. That is, we have established that while at least 41 people died directly from the explosions, at least 9 more Azov servicemen died as a result of the failure to provide proper medical care," said Martsyn.
According to him, this includes untimely provision of assistance, obstruction of military medical personnel who were there to provide assistance, untimely evacuation, improper evacuation, use of improper means of evacuation, which worsened the condition of the victims, resulting in the deaths of at least 9 other defenders both before and during the evacuation.
Martsyn also reminded that on February 27, 2024, following an investigation, the so-called head of the Olenivka correctional colony and his first deputy were notified of suspicion of committing criminal offenses, violation of the laws and customs of war, combined with premeditated murder under Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code.
Terrorist attack in Olenivka
As a reminder, on the night of 29 July 2022, a powerful explosion occurred in the building where Ukrainian prisoners of war were held in the former penal colony No. 210 in the village of Olenivka in the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk Oblast.
According to the Russian side, about 50 Ukrainian defenders were killed and more than 70 others were seriously injured.
The International Commission of the Red Cross tried to get to the crime scene but was prevented by the Russian occupiers.
Prosecutor General Kostin released information that the prisoners were killed using thermobaric weapons.
In August 2022, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres set up a commission to investigate the terrorist attack in occupied Olenivka, which killed about 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war. However, in January 2023, after failing to receive security guarantees from the Russians, Guterres disbanded the mission.
