Russia calls for investigation into killing of prisoners in Ukraine

Russia on Sunday called on experts from the United Nations and the Red Cross to investigate the deaths of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners held by Moscow-backed separatists, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered the evacuation of residents in the eastern Donetsk region.

Zelensky said hundreds of thousands of people are still in the areas of heavy fighting in the Donbass region, which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

"Many refuse to leave, but this still needs to be done," he said in a televised speech late on Saturday. "The more people leave the Donetsk region now, the less people the Russian army will have time to kill."

Ukraine and Russia have traded accusations over a missile attack or explosion early on Friday that likely killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war in the frontline town of Olenivka in eastern Donetsk.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that Russia had invited experts from the United Nations and the Red Cross to investigate the incident in order to conduct an impartial investigation.

The ministry had published a list of the names of 50 prisoners of war who were killed and 73 wounded in what it said was a Ukrainian military strike with a US-made Hemars missile.

Ukraine's armed forces denied responsibility, saying that Russian artillery targeted the prison to conceal mistreatment of detainees there.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Friday that Russia had committed a war crime and called on the international community to condemn it.

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