ZURICH (Reuters) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has yet to receive permission to visit the site of Friday’s attack that killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war and on Sunday condemned the incident in Olenivka, eastern Ukraine. .
“Families must receive urgent news and answers about what happened to their loved ones. Parties should do everything in their power, including through impartial investigations, to help determine the facts behind the attack and bring clarity to this issue. It is not the ICRC’s role or mandate to carry out public investigations into alleged war crimes,” it said in a statement.
Russia on Sunday invited experts from the United Nations and the Red Cross to investigate the deaths of dozens of prisoners held by Moscow-backed separatists.
Ukraine and Russia exchanged accusations over Friday’s missile attack or explosion that may have killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners in the front-line town of Olenivka.
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Saturday published a list of 50 Ukrainian POWs killed and 73 wounded in what it said was a Ukrainian military strike with a US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS).
Ukraine’s military has denied responsibility, saying Russian artillery attacked the prison to hide ill-treatment.
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