A missile strike destroyed a prison building in Ukraine on Friday, reportedly killing dozens of prisoners of war, with Moscow and Kyiv pointing fingers at each other on who should be held responsible for the deadly attack.
The fatalities eclipsed U.N.-backed efforts to resume transporting food from Ukraine and mitigate an impending worldwide hunger crisis; some of the dead were confirmed by Reuters inside the dilapidated prison where the men were confined.
According to the Russian defense ministry, the attack on the prison in the separatist-held frontline town of Olenivka, Donetsk region resulted in the deaths of 40 prisoners and the injuries of 75 others.
The leader of the separatist movement, Denis Pushilin, claimed that 193 prisoners were held there. But he did not clarify How many of them were Ukrainian POWs.
Russian news outlets reported Kyiv had employed HIMARS missiles developed in the United States during the attack.
The Russian artillery had targeted the prison, according to the Ukrainian armed forces, to conceal the mistreatment of prisoners detained there and place the responsibility on Ukraine.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for international condemnation of the incident and claimed that Russia had committed a war crime.
In response to what it claimed were Russian war crimes, the Ukrainian foreign ministry denounced an assault on a prison in territory held by rebels with Russian support and appealed to the International Criminal Court.
Russia has denied any involvement in any war crimes in Ukraine but claimed that Kyiv was responsible for the attack on Friday.
Ukraine Calls ICC To Investigate Russia's War Crimes
In a statement, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said: "We call on the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to urgently draw attention to the atrocities of Russian servicemen in the context of the investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by citizens of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine."
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According to the statement the alleged crimes took place at the same time as another war crime committed by Russia, the shelling of prisons in the seized Olenivka, where it is thought that Ukrainians were being detained as prisoners of war.
Ukrainian prosecutor general's office has launched a preliminary inquiry into the attack, per Al Jazeera.
Ukraine Resumes Grain Exports
In other developments, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled Friday to the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk with his infrastructure minister and a delegation of G7 officials, including the U.S., German, Canadian,and British ambassadors to Ukraine, as reported by CBC.
According to an export agreement Ukraine and Russia concluded a week ago, Zelenskyy claimed his country is prepared to restart grain shipments for the first time in five months as he stood close to a Turkish freighter that was ready to embark.
Zelensky said that Ukraine has sent all the signals to its partners UN and Turkey, adding that the military "guarantees the security situation.He added: "The minister of infrastructure is in direct contact with Turkey and the UN. We're waiting for them to give the go-ahead."
The first shipments, according to Zelenskyy, might start as early as Friday or Saturday.
