Highlights
- Ukraine’s assault on Russia hit a jail killed 53 prisoners of struggle captured in Mariupol
- Russia knowledgeable that eight jail guards had been wounded by the shelling
- The assault was carried out with a HIMARS a number of rocket launchers on the jail
Russia-Ukraine information: Russian-backed separatists stated Friday {that a} Ukrainian assault with U.S.-supplied missiles on a separatist jap area hit a jail and killed 53 Ukrainian prisoners of struggle who had been captured in Mariupol. There was no quick affirmation of the assault from Ukraine.
The assault with HIMARS a number of rocket launchers on the jail in Olenivka, within the Russian-controlled Donetsk area, additionally injured 75 Ukrainian POWs, stated Russian Protection Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov. Talking earlier than the newest replace from the separatists, he put the dying toll at 40.
Konashenkov described the strike as a “bloody provocation” aimed toward discouraging Ukrainian troopers from surrendering. He stated that eight jail guards had been additionally wounded by the shelling. The assault couldn’t be independently verified and officers in Ukraine haven’t but commented on the reviews. Ukrainian authorities within the Donetsk area stated Russia has pressed on with the shelling of civilian targets in Ukrainian-held areas.
“The preventing within the area has been intensifying by the day, and civilians should evacuate whereas it’s nonetheless potential,” stated Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko. “The Russian military doesn’t fear about civilian casualties. They’re pummeling cities and villages within the area.” The Ukrainian troops in Mariupol had been taken prisoner after the fierce preventing for Ukraine’s Azov Sea port, the place they’d been holed up on the big Azovstal metal mill. Their resistance has change into a logo of the Ukrainian battle in opposition to the Russian invasion that began on Feb. 24.
The Azov Regiment and different Ukrainian models defended the metal mill for almost three months, clinging to its underground maze of tunnels. Greater than 2,400 surrendered in Could below relentless Russian assaults from the bottom, sea and air.
Scores of Ukrainian troopers had been taken to prisons in Russian-controlled areas such because the Donetsk area, a breakaway space in jap Ukraine that’s run by Russian-backed separatist authorities. Some have returned to Ukraine as a part of prisoner exchanges with Russia, however households of others do not know whether or not their family members are alive, or if they are going to ever come house.
ALSO READ | 5 lifeless, 25 injured as Russia strikes central Ukraine
ALSO READ | Russia says it needs to finish Ukraine’s ‘unacceptable regime’