KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian officials say they are struggling to establish the truth surrounding an explosion in a prison that killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war captured by the Russians following the fall of Mariupol.
Ukraine’s human rights chief, Dmytro Lubinets, told The Associated Press he has tried to establish a direct link with his Russian counterpart in order to arrange a joint visit to the prison in Olenivka, a town in eastern Ukraine held by Russian-backed separatists.
“Dialogue is when there is a conversation between two parties. At this moment, this is an official request from me, which remains unanswered,” Lubinets said.
Separatist authorities and Russian officials say 53 Ukrainian POWs were killed and a further 75 were wounded Friday in the blast that ripped through a building at the prison. Both sides have blamed the other for the attack, saying it was premeditated with the aim of covering up atrocities.
Moscow opened a probe, sending a team to the site from its Investigative Committee, the country’s main criminal investigation agency. The state-run RIA Novosti agency claimed that fragments of U.S.-supplied precision High Mobility Artillery Rocket System rockets were found at the site.
The Ukrainian military, however, denied conducting any rocket or artillery strikes in Olenivka, and it accused the Russians of attacking the prison to cover up the torture and execution of Ukrainians there.
“Based on the analysis of the photos and videos that we have access to, we can say that it was an explosion from the inside of this barrack,” Lubinets said.
He said images from the scene show damage to only one building and not all the windows were blown out — something he says would not be possible if the complex was shelled.
Ukraine has appealed to the United Nations and to the International Committee of the Red Cross for help in investigating the blast and to find out more about the condition of the injured.
ICRC spokesman Oleksandr Vlasenko told the AP that the organization was currently negotiating with the Russians regarding visiting Olenivka. ICRC staff want to see everyone held there, make sure those wounded in the blast get proper medical treatment, and look at the bodies of the dead.
Russian officials on Saturday issued a list of the Ukrainian soldiers they said who had been killed or wounded in the attack, but the Ukrainians say they have been unable to verify the list while there is no access for the ICRC.
More than 2,400 soldiers from the Azov Regiment of the Ukrainian national guard and other military units defending the city of Mariupol surrendered under orders from Ukraine’s military in May.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called upon the U.N. and the Red Cross, which acted as guarantors during the withdrawal of the Ukrainian military from the giant Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol, to preserve the lives of Ukrainian prisoners of war.