What we know about the prison camp explosion in eastern Ukraine

An explosion in a detention camp in eastern Ukraine killed at least 50 Ukrainian POWs.

The attack angered the Ukrainians, who call him a war crime.

Russia said, without offering evidence, that an attack with Ukrainian missiles caused the explosion.

This is what we know about the explosion, its causes and consequences.

What do we know about the camp where the explosion occurred?

The explosion hit a barracks of the corrective colony n. 120, a prison camp in the Russian-occupied city in Donetsk province in eastern Ukraine, Thursday evening around 11pm.

Including those arrested hundreds of Ukrainian fighters who surrendered to Russian forces in May after making a last stand to defend a steel mill in the port city of Mariupol.

Russia has called many of them war criminals without providing evidence, while many Ukrainians see them as heroes.

It is believed that at least there is 2,000 prisoners in the campor, and there have been numerous reports by prisoners, their families and human rights groups of torture and abuse.

The general staff of Ukraine accused Russia of causing a Butcher’s shop partly to hide torture evidence and field executions.

General Kyrylo Budanov, commander of Ukrainian military intelligence, said construction of the barracks affected by the blast was completed in an industrial area of ​​the camp just two days before the blast.

The prisoners they had just been transferred to themShe said.

What do the Ukrainians and the Russians say that happened that night?

The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukraine used an advanced US-made missile system known as HIMARSto attack the prison to discourage desertions, as well as to prevent prisoners from doing so provide information during interrogations.

A senior US military official said the US saw no evidence to support Moscow’s claim that a HIMARS ammunition was used in the barracks.

Russia has released photos and videos of the aftermath of the attack showing twisted metal bunk beds and charred bodies.

Mykhailo Podoliak, advisor to the Ukrainian president, said that only one building was damaged and the photographic analysis showed an “explosion”. thermobaric from inside”.

He accused Russia of moving debris from previous missile attacks on other targets to the POW camp it looks like an external attackand said he suspected it too no Russian soldiers or field workers were injured.

Tetiana Katrychenko, an activist whose organization has been in contact with the camp prisoners, said a prisoner called his wife Thursday night at the time of the blast and told her she heard a burstnot bombing.

He said the prisoner said two of his friends had been moved to a different building on the day of the explosion.

One was dead and the other was injured, he said.

Under the rigid logic that often governs conflicts, the remaining inmates are valuable to Moscow as a bargaining chip.

In a statement, Budanov said the attack appeared to have been carried out by Russian mercenaries acting outside the normal chain of command.

The Russian defense ministry, he said, appeared to have been caught unawares and forced to justify the attack after the fact.

What legal protections do prisoners have?

The International Committee for Red Cross said Ukrainian fighters who surrendered at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol should be treated according to Geneva Conventionswho affirm that prisoners of war must always be treated with humanity.

On Sunday, the Russian defense ministry said it would allow the ICRC and the United Nations visit the site of the explosionbut the ICRC said on Monday that he has not yet been granted access.

Many relatives of the prisoners expressed their anger at the Red Cross and the United Nations, claiming that they had guaranteed security as a condition for the combatants’ surrender.

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