Intelligence: Russia’s Wagner Group behind attack on Olenivka penal colony

by The Kyiv Independent news desk July 29, 2022 6:54 PM 1 min read

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According to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry Intelligence Directorate, the explosion in a penal colony in Russian-occupied Olenivka, Donetsk Oblast, was ordered by the owner of the Russian-controlled private military Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and was not coordinated with the Russian Defense Ministry.

However, Ukraine’s General Staff earlier said that Russia attacked the colony to destroy the evidence of torturing and killing Ukrainian POWs.

According to the Prosecutor General's Office, around 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed, and 130 were injured in the Russian attack on the Olenivka penal colony, where Russian proxies held the defenders of Mariupol who were supposed to be exchanged.

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