A car exploded in Russian-occupied Donetsk on Dec. 9, seriously injuring two people inside, Russian state media reported.
The Russian Telegram channel Mash claimed that Serhii Yevsiukov, the former head of Russia's notorious Olenivka prisoner of war (POW) camp in the occupied part of Donetsk Oblast, was killed in the blast.
The claims could not be independently verified as there has been no official confirmation that Yevsiukov was killed in the bombing. Ukraine did not comment on the incident.
Yevsiukov was wanted by Ukraine on murder, torture, and war crime charges. The Olenivka camp, notorious for the torture and abuse of Ukrainian captives, was hit by an explosion in June 2022, killing over 50 Ukrainian POWs and injuring more than 150. Kyiv called this a deliberate Russian war crime.
Russian state news agencies reported that a Toyota SUV exploded in central Donetsk, seriously injuring two people inside the vehicle who were also family members. The man's leg was torn off by the blast, RIA Novosti reported, without revealing his identity.
The explosion occurred on the side of the driver, the state news agency TASS reported.
The Mash Telegram channel later claimed that the man in question was Yevsiukov and that he was killed as a result. The second victim was said to be his wife, who is in a hospital in serious condition, Mash claimed.
Russia's Investigative Committee launched a criminal investigation into the explosion.
Yevsiukov was one of the key figures in the Kyiv Independent's investigation into the torture of captives in the Olenivka prison. He and his deputy, Dmytro Neiolov, were charged by Ukrainian prosecutors in July for violating laws of war.
Ukrainian authorities said that days before the explosion in the Olevnika prison, Russian occupation authorities singled out Ukrainian members of the Azov Regiment, who were captured in Mariupol and were awaiting a prisoner exchange, to a separate part of the prison building—the one that was destroyed.
The Prosecutor General's Office said that Russia likely used a thermobaric munition to strike the prison. Russia rejected the accusations and instead blamed the explosion on a Ukrainian HIMARS strike, an assertion rejected by the U.N.
(Updated: )
