Unanswered questions after the strike on Olenivka prison
What happened in Olenivka prison, in a pro-Russian separatist zone, where explosions caused the death of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners on July 29? Moscow accuses kyiv of having bombarded this prison camp, which the Ukrainian authorities refute, who affirm on the contrary that the prisoners were massacred by Russian forces. To discover the ” truth “, the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) will launch a fact-finding mission. Antonio Guterres said he hoped “obtaining all access facilities from both parties and obtaining the data necessary to establish the truth about what happened”.
Russia has claimed for a week that kyiv forces struck the site with Himars multiple rocket launchers, supplied by the United States. The Ukrainian military denies it, and Ukrainian intelligence said Wednesday it has evidence that pro-Russian separatists, in collusion with the FSB and the Wagner group, mined the prison building and used “a flammable substance, which led to the rapid spread of fire in the room”. On Thursday, US officials told the Associated Press (AP) that Russia was fabricating false evidence to accuse the Ukrainians of being responsible for the attack.
Several military experts have questioned the Russian version for several days because the images of the prison published by Russia itself seem not to correspond to what is known of the damage caused by the rockets fired by the Himars. Michel Goyaa former soldier and historian, notes for example – like others – the absence of a crater, the walls of the building still standing, the beds of the prisoners still lined up in the room while the rockets fired by the Himars cause violent explosions rather than fires.
Satellite images also show a single damaged prison building, with no collateral damage to nearby buildings. US officials have also affirmed to Politico that nothing at the site of the attack suggested that it could have been carried out by Himars rocket launchers. In view of the images of the site of the attack which have been made public, the American think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) believes that the destruction of the prison is the result “a precision strike, or an incendiary or explosive device placed inside”.