Internal UN analysis indicates that Russia planned and carried out the attack on the Olenivka colony. However, the organization has not publicly accused the Kremlin of the execution of the Ukrainian prisoners of war, according to the Associated Press.
On the night of 29 July 2022, Russia targeted a barrack of the correctional colony in Olenivka, in Donetsk Oblast, where Ukrainian prisoners of war were held. At least 50 defenders of Azovstal were killed in the explosion.
Previously, the UN Human Rights Office condemned Russia’s crime, stating that despite international obligations to protect the lives of prisoners of war, “the authorities of the Russian Federation took measures that obstructed independent efforts to establish the facts of the explosions in Olenivka.”
The statement added that Russia “did not allow UN observers to the site, nor were other independent expert analyses conducted.”
AP reminded that although the UN rejected Russia’s claims that the explosion was caused by a HIMARS missile launched by Ukraine, it did not accuse Moscow of organizing this crime despite the numerous collected testimonies.
Currently, there is no active international investigation into those events, except for the Ukrainian investigation, which is one of tens of thousands of investigations into Russian war crimes in Ukraine.
The UN dissolved the mission investigating the circumstances of the events five months after the tragedy because Russia refused to guarantee the safety of the experts. They never traveled to either the occupied territory in eastern Donetsk Oblast or to territory controlled by Ukraine.
Meanwhile, UN representatives gathered other evidence: they analyzed 70 open-source images, 20 statements from Russian officials, and 16 interviews with survivors broadcast on Russian television, and conducted detailed interviews with 55 released prisoners of war who were in the barracks or other locations in Olenivka during the attack.
According to the agency, their conclusion is that Russia was responsible for planning and carrying out the attack. The 100-page analysis was circulated at the highest levels of the UN but was never intended for full publication. Some pieces of evidence were included in broader UN reports on the war in Ukraine, including one that stated the missile flew from east to west. Thus, the UN never publicly accused Russia of its crime.
Recently, the Ukrainian Ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, has called on the UN to resume the investigation, stating that “the UN mission never agreed to review the Ukrainian materials regarding the explosion at the colony.”
Read also:
- Relatives of Olenivka terror attack victims name three demands to the international community
- HIMARS missiles not responsible for killing Ukrainian POWs in Olenivka – UN
