Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Friday's bombing of a prison that killed "more than 50 people" a "deliberate Russian war crime", after Moscow accused Ukrainian forces of responsibility.

The strike on Olenivka prison, where Ukrainian prisoners of war were held, in separatist territory in eastern Ukraine, is “a deliberate Russian war crime, a deliberate mass murder”, the leader says of the Ukrainian state.

This “attack by the occupiers” left “more than 50 dead”.

Earlier, the Russian army had reported 40 dead and 75 injured, with pro-Russian separatist authorities in the Donetsk region citing up to 53 dead.

According to Ukraine, the attack “was carried out by mercenaries of the Wagner division”

At first, it was Moscow who had implicated kyiv.

The Russian Investigative Committee accused the Ukrainian forces of having "fired on the prison where the members of the Azov battalion are being held, using American projectiles of the Himars system".

The Azov regiment had distinguished itself in the defense of Mariupol (south-east).

After long weeks of siege and resistance at the Azovstal steelworks, some 2,500 Ukrainian fighters surrendered to the Russian army in May.

Moscow had made it known that they would be imprisoned in Olenivka.

"This outrageous provocation aims to scare Ukrainian soldiers and dissuade them from surrendering," the Russian Defense Ministry said.

But Ukraine then quickly denied having targeted civilian infrastructure or prisoners of war, assuring that the army “fully adheres to the principles and standards of international humanitarian law”.

The Ukrainian general staff considered that it was thus a question of “accusing Ukraine of having committed war crimes” and of “camouflaging the torture of prisoners and the executions” which were “perpetrated” there. .

According to Ukrainian intelligence, the attack “was carried out by mercenaries from the Wagner division” and “was not coordinated with the management” of the Russian Ministry of Defense, then specified the Ukrainian staff.

Russian public television, for its part, broadcast images presented as those of charred barracks and destroyed metal bed frames.

She showed blurry images of what appear to be human bodies.

For its part, the European Union condemned "with the greatest firmness the atrocities committed by the Russian armed forces and their auxiliaries", in a press release from its head of diplomacy targeting both the bombardment of the prison and accusations of torture on a Ukrainian prisoner.

“These inhuman and barbaric acts constitute serious violations of the Geneva Conventions and their additional protocol and amount to war crimes,” added Josep Borrell.

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