'Another proof of Russia's war crimes' — Russian air strike on Ukrainian prison kills 16 inmates
Editor's note: This is a developing story and is being updated. The State Criminal-Executive Service initially reported that 17 prisoners were killed, but later corrected the figure to 16.
A Russian air strike against a prison in southern Zaporizhzhia Oblast late on July 28 killed 16 convicts and injured nearly a hundred more, Ukraine's State Criminal-Executive Service said.
Forty-four people were injured and hospitalized, and more than 50 were provided medical assistance on the spot, the authorities said. The State Criminal-Executive Service previously reported one staff member among the injured victims.
Moscow's forces struck the Zaporizhzhia district eight times with FAB bombs overnight, destroying prison buildings and damaging nearby houses, Governor Ivan Fedorov said.
The prison facility in Bilenke, a village around 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Zaporizhzhia, was hit by four bombs at around 11:30 p.m. on July 28, according to the State Criminal-Executive Service.
"The perimeter of the institution was not damaged; there is no threat of escape," the service said.
Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets denounced the attack as a "gross violation of international humanitarian law and yet another proof of Russia's war crimes."
"People held in places of detention do not lose their right to life and protection," Lubinets said on Telegram.
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) decried the attack and said that it may amount to a serious violation of international humanitarian law in a July 29 statement.
“Prisoners are civilians, and they must be protected under international humanitarian law,” Danielle Bell, head of HRMMU, said in the statement.
HRMMU added that it planned to send monitors to the site of the strike "at the earliest opportunity to gather additional information."
It noted that the structural damage and wide-spread blast effects visible in photos reviewed by HRMMU were consistent with the use of powerful air-glide bombs.
As of spring, Ukrainian prosecutors are investigating over 150,000 suspected war crimes committed by Russia during its all-out war.
Russia has occupied part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast since the onset of its full-scale invasion in 2022, subjecting the rest of its territories to daily aerial and artillery attacks.
