Military Analysts Accuse Russia of War Crimes in Donetsk – Did Moscow Kill Prisoners?

Created: 08/03/2022 17:59

By: Felix Durach

Western analysts blame Moscow for the attack on the POW camp in Olenivka.

The attack is classified as a war crime in Ukraine.

Donetsk – The cruel war between Russia and Ukraine has been raging for more than five months.

Five months of destruction, suffering and death.

The brutality with which the Ukraine war is being waged by the Russian side is causing horror in the West.

Kyiv repeatedly reports of Russian rocket attacks on residential areas or shopping centers.

In return, Moscow regularly denies the reports and refers to military targets that have been attacked.

As the war progresses, the issue of war crimes is increasingly becoming the focus of Western observers.

Shortly after the war began, Russian forces are said to have massacred the population of the Bucha suburb in Kyiv Oblast.

The Ukrainian government reports more than 400 civilians killed.

Images of the town's streets strewn with corpses went around the world.

Here, too, Moscow denies responsibility for the atrocities.

Russian forces are said to have left Bucha days earlier.

Similar debates are now taking place over another alleged war crime: the destruction of the prison in Olenivka.

War in Ukraine: More than 50 prisoners of war die in prison attack - Moscow denies Red Cross access

On the night of last Friday, a rocket is said to have hit the prisoner of war camp in the Donetsk region.

According to Russian sources, more than 50 Ukrainian prisoners died in the attack.

70 other soldiers were injured.

In this incident, too, Moscow and Kyiv blame each other.

While Russia reports that the facility was hit by a Ukrainian Himars multiple rocket launcher, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks of a premeditated Russian war crime.

The information provided by both sides cannot currently be independently verified.

However, this is also because Moscow denies independent organizations access to the prison on pro-Russian territory.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported at the weekend that they had waited in vain for access to the injured.

"To be clear, yesterday our request for access to the POWs from Olenivka Prison was not granted," the independent organization said on Twitter.

Moscow also contradicted those reports on Sunday, claiming there was indeed an invitation to the ICRC.

A Russian soldier patrols near the walls of the prison camp in the city of Olenivka, Donetsk region.

© dpa

The strictly neutral ICRC has the power to visit prisoners of war under international law, which applies to every country in the world.

"The Third Geneva Convention gives the ICRC the right to go where prisoners of war are and to question them," the ICRC said on its website.

However, the delegates need the formal approval of the party holding the prisoners of war.

Military analysts blame Russia for attack on prisoner camps in Donetsk

Barely a week later, however, more and more Western observers blame Russia for the attacks on the prison.

This is also how the military analysts from the "Institute for the Study of War" (ISW) assess the events.

In their justification, the experts also refer to the statements of two anonymous US officials.

They had told the

portal that there were no signs of a Himar rocket launcher attack around the prison.

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In addition, satellite images show that only one prison building was damaged.

However, the walls of the barracks are said not to have collapsed as a result of the attack and no grenade craters could be found in the vicinity of the building.

The observations would therefore indicate either a precision strike or that the building was destroyed by an explosive device deposited inside.

A satellite image shows the Olenivka prison camp in the Donetsk region after the attack that killed over 50 prisoners.

© dpa

Military expert reports: Russia does not want “the prisoners to be freed”

The ISW explains in its analysis that the Himars multiple rocket launchers are the only weapons in Ukraine's possession that would have been capable of such a precision strike.

Other weapons would have left clear marks around the building that would have been visible in satellite imagery.

In view of the statements made by US officials, the ISW therefore assumes that Russia is responsible for the attack.

The attack could therefore have been carried out with an incendiary bomb or a comparable explosive device.

However, this conclusion cannot be independently verified in the current situation.

Military expert Christian Mölling, research director of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), spoke to the

of two possible reasons for Moscow's attack.

"For one thing, the Russians don't want the prisoners to be freed.

It is said that there have already been liberation actions recently, ”said the expert.

On the other hand, Moscow wants to cause fear and terror in the Ukrainian population with the brutal action.

Russia's perfidious strategy: Moscow wants to stir up "doubts in the West".

The accusation that Kyiv was responsible for the attacks on the prison in Olenivka also fits into the Kremlin's tactical calculations.

"From a Russian point of view, the most important thing is to stir up doubts about the war in the West," Mölling explained to the

.

In this way, Moscow wants to ensure that the West is more hesitant about further arms deliveries and that Russia can retain the military upper hand in the war.

The US historian and Yale professor Timothy Snyder recently wrote about this strategy in his personal blog and gave the West a clear recommendation for action: “All we have to do is see things as they are, be patient to show and support the democracy that is being attacked - with the right attitude and the right weapons," said Snyder about the further course of the war.

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The soldiers killed in Olenivka are said to be mostly defenders of the Black Sea city of Mariupol.

These included members of the Azov regiment, which Moscow officially classified as a terrorist organization on Tuesday.

The killing of prisoners of war violates the Geneva Conventions and is therefore clearly classified as a war crime.

President Zelenskyy said shortly after the attack: "This is a premeditated Russian war crime, a premeditated mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war."

Alongside the Bucha massacre, the attack on the prison in Olenivka could prove to be the most serious war crime in the current conflict.

The human rights organization Human Rights Watch published a report at the end of July accusing Moscow of torturing and ill-treating prisoners of war.

"Russian troops have turned the occupied territories of southern Ukraine into an abyss of fear and wild lawlessness," the organization said.