KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian and Russian officers blamed one another Saturday for the deaths of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of battle in an assault on a prison in a separatist-controlled space. The International Red Cross requested to go to the prison to be sure the scores of wounded POWs had correct remedy, however stated its request had not been granted to this point.
Meanwhile, Russia stored launching assaults on a number of Ukrainian cities, hitting a college and a bus station.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated the ICRC and the United Nations have an obligation to react to the shelling of the prison advanced in Ukraine’s jap Donetsk province, and he known as once more for Russia to be declared a terrorist state.
“Condemnation at the level of political rhetoric is not enough for this mass murder,” he stated.
Separatist authorities and Russian officers stated the assault Friday killed 53 Ukrainian POWs and wounded one other 75. Russia’s Defense Ministry on Saturday issued an inventory naming 48 Ukrainian fighters, aged 20 to 62, who died within the assault; it was not clear if the ministry had revised its fatality depend.
Satellite images taken earlier than and after the assault present {that a} small, squarish constructing in the course of the Olenivka prison advanced was demolished, its roof in splinters.
Both Ukraine and Russia alleged the assault on the prison was premeditated and meant to silence the Ukrainian prisoners and destroy proof.
The ICRC, which has organized civilian evacuations and labored to monitor the remedy of POWs held by Russia and Ukraine, stated it requested entry to the prison “to determine the health and condition of all the people present on-site at the time of the attack.”
“Our priority right now is making sure that the wounded receive lifesaving treatment and that the bodies of those who lost their lives are dealt with in a dignified manner,” the Red Cross stated.
But the group stated late Saturday that its request to entry the prison had not been granted but.
“Granting ICRC access to POWs is an obligation of parties to conflict under the Geneva Conventions,” the ICRC stated on Twitter.
Russia claimed Ukraine’s navy used U.S.-supplied precision rocket launchers to goal the prison in Olenivka, a settlement managed by the Moscow-backed Donetsk People’s Republic.
The Ukrainian navy accused the Russians of shelling the prison to cowl up the alleged torture and execution of Ukrainians there.
The Institute for the Study of War, a assume tank based mostly in Washington, stated the competing claims and restricted info prevented assigning full accountability for the assault however the “available visual evidence appears to support the Ukrainian claim more than the Russian.”
Moscow has opened a probe into the assault and the U.N. stated it additionally was ready to ship investigators. U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq stated “we stand ready to send a group of experts able to conduct an investigation, requiring the consent of the parties, and we fully support the initiatives” of the Red Cross.
Elsewhere in jap Ukraine, Russian rockets hit a college in Kharkiv and a bus station in Sloviansk, amongst different strikes. In southern Ukraine, one individual was reported killed and 6 injured in shelling in a residential space in Mykolaiv, native officers stated.
Russian and separatist forces try to take full management of the Donetsk area, one in every of two jap provinces that Russia has acknowledged as sovereign states.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk warned Saturday that Ukrainian-controlled components of Donetsk will face extreme heating issues this winter due to the destruction of gasoline mains. She known as for a compulsory evacuation of residents earlier than the chilly climate units in.
The prison assault reportedly killed Ukrainian troopers captured in May after the autumn of Mariupol, a Black Sea port metropolis where troops and the Azov Regiment of the nationwide guard famously held out in opposition to a months-long Russian siege.
On Saturday, an affiliation of Azov fighters’ kinfolk wearing black demonstrated outdoors Kyiv’s St. Sophia Cathedral and known as for Russia to be designated a terrorist state for violating the Geneva Convention’s guidelines for the remedy of battle prisoners.
A girl carrying darkish glasses who gave solely her first identify, Iryna, was ready for information of her 23-year-old son.
“I don`t know how is he, where is he, if he is alive or no. I don`t know. It`s a horror, only horror,” she stated.
On the power entrance, Russia’s state-owned pure gasoline company stated Saturday it has halted shipments to Latvia due to contract violations. Gas large Gazprom stated the shipments have been stopped as a result of Latvia broke “terms for extraction of gas.”
The assertion doubtless referred to a refusal to meet Russia’s demand for gasoline funds in rubles quite than different currencies. Gazprom has beforehand suspended gasoline shipments to different EU nations, together with the Netherlands, Poland and Bulgaria, as a result of they might not pay in rubles.
EU nations have been scrambling to safe different power sources, fearing that Russia will minimize off extra gasoline provides as winter approaches.
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