Ukraine’s military added that the claims that the prisoners were killed in shelling were designed to hide the fact that the men had been “tortured and murdered”. The country’s foreign minister, Dymtro Kuleba, accused Russia of a “barbaric war crime”. The Ukrainian denial follows a claim earlier on Friday by the Russian defence ministry and Russian-backed self-styled separatist forces that Ukraine had struck a prison in Olenivka with US-made Himars rockets. “A missile strike from the US-made multiple launch rocket system (Himars) was carried out on a pre-trial detention centre in the area of the settlement of Olenivka, where Ukrainian military prisoners of war, including fighters from the Azov battalion, are being held,” the defence ministry said in its daily briefing. For its part Ukraine accused Russian forces of deliberately shelling the prison as part of an “information war to accuse the Ukrainian armed forces of shelling civilian infrastructure and the population to cover up their own treacherous action”. Footage broadcast on Russian television said to be from the scene at the prison showed military personnel examining a building with a hole in the roof, tangled metal from bunk beds and blood trails among personal effects. Other images showed charred bodies and dismembered limbs. Olenivka is about 10km south of occupied Donetsk and close to the frontline. Establishing responsibility, however, is likely to be highly challenging without independent access to the site. According to reports, the Ukrainian troops were among those taken prisoner after the fierce fighting for Ukraine’s Azov seaport of Mariupol, where they holed up at the Azovstal steel mill complex for months. The Azov regiment and other Ukrainian units defended the steel mill for nearly three months, clinging to its underground maze of tunnels. They surrendered in May under relentless Russian attacks from the ground, sea and air. Scores of Ukrainian soldiers were taken to prisons in Russian-controlled areas such as Donetsk, a breakaway area in eastern Ukraine run by Russian-backed separatist authorities. Some have returned to Ukraine as part of prisoner exchanges with Russia, but families of others have no idea whether their loved ones are alive, or if they will ever come home. The announcement raises serious questions about where the prisoners were being held, in what circumstances, and why they had not been moved to a safer location. It also raises questions about the status of those killed. Under the Geneva conventions, registered prisoners of war would not be tried for legally participating in conflict. The claim comes amid outrage over a widely circulated video on social media channels that claimed to show a Russian soldier castrating a Ukrainian captive. The gruesome video – which clearly shows the face of the alleged perpetrator as he appears to mutilate a bound man in uniform – could not immediately be verified by the Guardian but has provoked anger among Ukrainians. Sign up to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am BST The videos once again raise serious questions over the Russian treatment of Ukrainian prisoners after previous allegations emerged about the murder of nine men in Bucha, and widespread claims by human rights groups of serious violations of human rights including torture, disappearance and extra-judicial murders. The claims of the death of the prisoners comes amid continuing fighting. In the southern city of Mykolaiv, Russian shelling killed at least five people at a bus stop, with images from the city showing a number of bodies lying in the street. While the city has been repeatedly hit by Russian forces, buses are still running to Odesa and other nearby towns, often used by residents for evacuation.
