Red Cross to deploy specialists to Olenivka after Ukrainian military attack at pre-trial detention centre
Aug 01, 2022
Geneva [Switzerland], August 1 : The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Sunday said that it is ready to deploy specialists to the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) town of Olenivka in the Donbas region where 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed after the Ukrainian military attacked a pre-trial detention centre with HIMARS rocket systems on Friday.
ICRC spokesman Ewan Watson said that the matter is being discussed with the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sputnik reported.
"We are ready to deploy to Olenivka. We already have medical, forensic, and humanitarian teams working in the vicinity since we have been present in Donetsk since 2014. It is imperative that the ICRC be granted immediate access to the Olenivka facility, and other places where the wounded and dead might have been transferred in order to carry out its humanitarian mission," Ewan Watson said.
"As of yet, we have received no official confirmation granting us access to visit the site or the PoWs affected by the attack, and, to date, our offer of material assistance has not been yet responded to. Though we are in contact with the Russian Ministry of Defense on the matter," Watson added.
Russia on Saturday invited the experts of the United Nations and Red Cross to participate in the investigation into the Ukrainian military attack on a pre-trial detention centre near Olenivka in the Donbas region with HIMARS rocket systems which killed 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war.
"In order to conduct an objective investigation of the attack on the pre-trial detention centre in Yelenovka, which led to the death of a large number of Ukrainian prisoners of war, the Russian Federation has officially invited experts from the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross," Sputnik reported citing the Russian defence ministry.
The Olenivka detention centre, hosting Ukrainian prisoners of war, was shelled by Ukrainian troops with US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) on Friday morning.
According to DPR territorial defence 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed and over 130 were wounded. In addition, eight employees of the pre-trial detention centre received injuries of different severity.
The ministry called the Ukrainian attack a "flagrant provocation" aimed at intimidating Ukrainian soldiers who think about surrendering.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) offered its support in the evacuation of the wounded on Friday. UN spokesman Farhan Haq said on Saturday that the United Nations was ready to conduct an investigation into the Olenivka shelling.
