Russia claimed that Ukraine’s navy used U.S.-supplied rocket launchers to strike the jail in Olenivka, a settlement managed by the Moscow-backed Donetsk Folks’s Republic, on July 29. Separatist authorities and Russian officers stated the assault killed 53 Ukrainian POWs and wounded one other 75.

The Ukrainian navy denied making any rocket or artillery strikes in Olenivka. In August, the intelligence arm of the Ukrainian protection ministry stated it had proof that native Kremlin-backed separatists colluded with the Russian FSB, the KGB’s essential successor company, and the Russian mercenary group Wagner to mine the barrack earlier than “utilizing a flammable substance, which led to the fast unfold of fireplace within the room.”

Dujarric advised reporters that there was a “political settlement” by each side for the fact-finding mission however for such a posh, delicate and harmful mission in an energetic warfare zone “we require clear security and entry ensures from each side and we didn’t really feel we had obtained them.”

He refused to say particularly whether or not the U.N. did get the fitting entry ensures from the Russians or Ukrainians, stressing that the U.N. has been involved and making an attempt for the previous 5 months, “and we’re pushing very onerous.”

“We are able to solely hope that sooner or later there would be the proper circumstances and we, after all, stand able to reconstitute the workforce … as quickly as we really feel that now we have the right safety ensures,” Dujarric stated.

Secretary-Common Guterres thanked retired Brazilian Lt. Gen Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz, who had been appointed in late August to guide the fact-finding mission and the opposite members, Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir of Iceland and Issoufou Yacouba of Niger, for his or her readiness to take part.

The Ukrainian POWs on the Donetsk jail included troops captured in the course of the fall of Mariupol. They spent months holed up with civilians on the big Azovstal metal mill within the southern port metropolis. Their resistance throughout a relentless Russian bombardment turned a image of Ukrainian defiance in opposition to Russia’s aggression.

Greater than 2,400 troopers from the Azov Regiment of the Ukrainian nationwide guard and different navy models gave up their combat and surrendered underneath orders from Ukraine’s navy in Could.

Scores of Ukrainian troopers have been taken to prisons in Russian-controlled areas. Some have returned to Ukraine as a part of prisoner exchanges with Russia, however different households do not know whether or not their family members are nonetheless alive, or if they are going to ever come dwelling.

Ukraine’s protection ministry stated on Aug. 3 that Ukrainian captives on the jail had been topic to “bullying, bodily humiliation, and psychological demoralization” in an try and coerce them into starring in pro-Russian propaganda movies.

Secretary-Common Guterres reiterated his name for the safety of prisoners of warfare as required underneath worldwide humanitarian and human rights legislation, Dujarric stated.