The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has condemned an attack on a prison site where dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed this week in territory controlled by Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
In a statement issued on July 31, the Red Cross said it had not yet received permission to visit the site of the July 29 attack on the Olenivka prison facility.
While demanding that an impartial probe be conducted into the attack, it added that it was not the organization that is mandated to carry out such an investigation.
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"Families must receive urgent news of and answers on what happened to their loved ones,” the ICRC said.
“The parties must do everything in their power, including through impartial investigations, to help determine the facts behind the attack and bring clarity to this issue.
“However, it is not the role or mandate of the ICRC to carry out public investigations into alleged war crimes," it added.
Kyiv and Moscow have traded accusations over who is to blame for the missile strike or blast that killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners in the town of Olenivka on the front lines of the conflict.
Russia's Defense Ministry invited the United Nations and the ICRC to conduct an investigation at the prison in separatist-controlled territory.
"Russia has officially invited UN and International Committee of the Red Cross experts to engage in an impartial investigation into an attack on a pre-trial detention center in Olenivka, which killed a large number of Ukrainian prisoners of war," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a July 31 statement.
Prior to the Russian Defense Ministry's statement, UN spokesperson Farhan Haq said it would send investigators to the prison if both Russia and Ukraine agreed.
Russian authorities and Russia-backed separatists in the eastern Donetsk region said the attack killed 53 Ukrainian POWs and wounded 75. The Russian Defense Ministry on July 30 published a list naming 48 Ukrainian fighters aged 20 to 62 who were killed in the attack.
Russia has claimed that the POWs were killed by a Ukrainian strike using U.S.-supplied precision rockets.
The Ukrainian military has denied the allegation and accused the Russians, aided by pro-Russia separatist forces in the Donetsk region, of shelling the prison holding Ukrainian POWs to cover up the alleged torture and execution of Ukrainians there.
Satellite photos taken before and after the attack show that a small building in the middle of the Olenivka prison complex was damaged, its roof in splinters. The ICRC has sought access to the site and offered to help evacuate the wounded.
“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 said earlier.
After reporting difficulties gaining an invitation to visit the site in Russia-controlled territory, the ICRC said in a July 30 tweet that "granting ICRC access to POWs is an obligation of parties to conflict under the Geneva Convention."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that the UN and ICRC have a duty to react to the attack.
“It was a deliberate Russian war crime, a deliberate mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war,” Zelenskiy said in a video address late on July 30. “There should be a clear legal recognition of Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.”
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his condolences over the deaths in a phone call on July 29 with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, according to a State Department statement on July 30.
The United States is committed to "hold Russia accountable for atrocities committed by its forces against the people of Ukraine," Blinken told Kuleba.
Following the attack, the European Union on July 29 expressed shock at the attack on the site, which it said held Ukrainian POWs including surrendered defenders of Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant who were "in Russia’s legal protection under international humanitarian law."
EU high representative Josep Borrell condemned in "the strongest terms the atrocities committed by the Russian armed forces and their proxies."
Ukraine has accused Russia of atrocities and brutality against civilians since its invasion began on February 24 and said it has identified more than 10,000 possible war crimes. Russia denies targeting civilians and has denied allegations of war crimes.