War in Ukraine: Russia accuses kyiv of bombing a Ukrainian prison camp

Europe 1 with AFP 11:37 a.m., July 29, 2022, modified at 11:38 a.m., July 29, 2022

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The Russian army on Friday accused kyiv forces of having bombarded a prison in Donbass (east) under the control of pro-Russian separatists during the night, killing 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war and wounding 75 others.

Information to remember:

• Russia accuses kyiv of bombing a prison in Donbass, killing 40 Ukrainian prisoners

• At least five people died in a Russian strike, which hit a bus stop

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that shots from a Himars artillery system, supplied to Ukraine by the United States, hit a prison in the Donetsk region, where these Ukrainian soldiers were held. .

According to the ministry, this prison is located near the town of Olenivka (Elenovka in Russian) about thirty kilometers south-west of Donetsk, the capital of the pro-Russian separatists in the eponymous region.

"This outrageous provocation aims to frighten Ukrainian soldiers and dissuade them from surrendering," the ministry said.

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Russian public television broadcast images presented as those of the charred barracks, without showing any victims.

AFP could not verify these statements from an independent source.

The ministry specifies that the prison housed in particular members of the Azov regiment, which distinguished itself in the defense of the city of Mariupol against the Russian army and which Moscow accuses of being a neo-Nazi formation.

2,500 Ukrainian fighters surrendered in May

After long weeks of siege and resistance at the Azovstal steel site in Mariupol, some 2,500 Ukrainian fighters surrendered in May.

The Russian authorities had indicated that they would be imprisoned in Olenivka.

The Himars multiple launch rocket systems, delivered to kyiv by the United States, have proven particularly formidable against Russian army positions in recent weeks.

Five dead and seven injured in the bombing of a bus stop

At least five people were killed and seven others injured in a Russian strike that hit a bus stop in the Mykolaiv region of southern Ukraine, the regional governor announced on Friday.

"They bombed (...) next to a public transport stop. Twelve people are on the ground," Vitaly Kim said on Telegram.

First evoking four dead, he then indicated that the toll amounted to five killed and seven injured.

He accused the Russian forces of "bombarding the city during the day, when everyone is going about their business".

Ukrainian forces faced six Russian assaults in the East

At least eight people have been killed and 19 others injured in the past 24 hours in the eastern Donetsk region, the Ukrainian presidency said in its morning report.

In that of Kharkiv, in the northeast, at least one person was killed and seven others injured, according to the same source.

The governor of the Lugansk region, Sergiï Gaïdaï, for his part announced that the Ukrainian forces had faced six Russian assaults in the East.

"The enemy's reconnaissance groups are trying to find weak points in our defense (..). They attack from different sides and have resorted to aviation on several occasions," he said on Telegram.

The Ukrainian army for its part destroyed a station in Brylivka, a village located 45 kilometers southeast of the occupied region of Kherson in the south of the country, in order to complicate supplies for the Russian army, said on Facebook local MP Serguii Khlan.