White House officials believe Russia is preparing to falsify evidence to blame Ukrainian forces for the deadly explosion at the Olenivka prison before outside parties visited the site.
A US administration official told CNN they expect Russia will falsify evidence and blame Ukrainian forces and have “reason to believe that Russia will go so far as to show that the blame lies with Ukrainian HIMARS before the journalists arrive.”
The United States supplied Ukraine with the HIMARS missile launch system earlier this year.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack on the prison in separatist-held eastern Ukraine was a “deliberate war crime by the Russians”.
Russia has previously blamed Ukraine for the attack.
The mission of the United Nations: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at a press conference on Wednesday that the United Nations is seeking to establish a fact-finding team to study Attack on the detention center which resulted in the deaths of at least 50 people and the injury of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Guterres told reporters in New York that Russia and Ukraine had requested an investigation into the attack. He added that the commission’s terms of reference must be accepted by Russia and Ukraine before the fact-finding mission can begin.
Ukraine blames mercenary group: The Intelligence Department of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry claimed, Wednesday, that the bombing of the building in which Ukrainian soldiers were being held “was carried out by fighters of the military command center” Wagner “using a highly flammable substance, which led to a rapid spread of fire in the area of the building.”
Wagner is a private military contractor His fighters took part in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as in other conflicts in Africa and the Middle East.
CNN was unable to verify the claim of the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Department, which did not provide any evidence to support its claims.
What does Russia say: The Russian government has rejected White House accusations of falsifying evidence.
“One thing can be said here, which is absolutely clear and absolutely proven about what happened in Olenivka. The people, namely Ukrainian prisoners of war, who were held there, died at the hands of the Ukrainian army,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a phone call on Thursday.
Ukraine killed its soldiers who were in captivity. Many injured. Therefore, there is irrefutable evidence here and nothing to hide,” Peskov said.
Peskov said in a call on Thursday that Russia had invited the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit the site. However, in a statement issued on Wednesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said that it has not yet been allowed to enter the site.
CNN’s Ulyana Pavlova contributed reporting for this post.
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