Forty days after the unexplained explosion at the #Olenivka #prison in Russian-occupied #Donbas that killed over 50 Ukrainian prisoners of #war, the families of the defenders of #Mariupol and of the Azovstal Steelworks imprisoned by the Russians, have still not been told how many men were killed, and whether their loved ones were among them. #Russia is continuing to violate international law by preventing the International Committee of the Red Cross [ #ICRC] from visiting the site and speaking with surviving POWs. While more movement on a UN fact-finding mission has been announced, there is nothing to suggest that this equates to actual progress. On 3 August, #UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced plans for a fact-finding mission, saying that an independent investigation had been requested by both #Ukraine and Russia. On 22 August, we even learned the make-up of such a mission and the members’ credentials, however it was also reported that the UN believed the situation around the prison was too dangerous for such a trip to be undertaken.

It is difficult to see how reporting such illusory progress can help anyone but those responsible for the attack, and during their press conference on 6 September, the relatives of #Azovstal defenders imprisoned at Olenivka expressed frustration at the impotence of international bodies. Such lack of any progress makes it clear that all the POWs are in grave danger, and they demanded that more effective methods be applied to secure their release before it is too late.

https://khpg.org/en/1608811125 #uno #pmc #wagner #fsb #military