Donetsk (Ukraine): In eastern Ukraine, which is under separatist control, Russian forces accused Kyiv forces of attacking the housing of Ukrainian prisoners of war on Friday, claiming 40 people were killed and several others wounded.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the prison in Olenivka, a part of Donetsk controlled by separatists, was attacked overnight by a US-made HIMARS rocket system.
The Defense Ministry reported in a statement that "forty Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed and 75 were wounded," adding that eight employees of the detention facility were also wounded.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Azov battalion guarding the Azovstal plant in the port city of Mariupol was said to be one of the Ukrainian prisoners of war.
No casualties could be seen, but Russian television showed that the barracks and twisted metal beds were destroyed. According to Moscow, the "bloody provocations of the Kyiv regime" served as a deterrent to Ukrainian troops to give up their weapons and surrender.
According to the Defense Ministry, "this fierce provocation was carried out to intimidate Ukrainian soldiers."
Mariupol's last stronghold, the Azovstal Steel Plant, was under siege for several weeks before conceding defeat to about 2,500 Ukrainian fighters in May.
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