Ukraine Blames Wagner Group For Attack On Prison Holding POWs

Ukraine has blamed Russia’s Wagner Group for the attack on the Olenivka penal colony in the Donetsk region, claiming that the attack was ordered by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a crony of Russian President Vladimir Putin who also owns the private military company, and the bombing was not coordinated with the Russian Defense Ministry, Kyiv Independent reported on July 30, 2022.

Photo Insert: Alleged members of the Wagner Group captured by Ukrainian authorities

A total of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) were killed in the attack.

British intelligence has claimed that the Wagner Group has been given duties similar to regular army units on frontlines in Ukraine. The UK Defense Ministry says this is a “significant change” from previous employment of the elite Wagner Group since 2015 when it “typically undertook missions distinct from overt, large-scale regular Russian military activity.”

The role of the Wagner Group has probably changed as Russia suffers a “major shortage of combat infantry.” The ministry added that Wagner Group’s forces are “highly unlikely to be sufficient to make a significant difference in the trajectory of the war.”

The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine has launched an investigation into the video that appears to show Russian Chechen soldiers brutally torturing and castrating a Ukrainian POW.

"Cruel treatment of prisoners of war, their torture, including physical mutilation, is a gross violation" of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the office said on July 29.

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