Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for strikes on a prison in eastern Ukraine that Moscow said have killed dozens, including some of those captured in battle-scarred Mariupol.
The Russian army and separatists backed by it accused Kiev's forces of striking the jail holding Ukrainian prisoners on Friday — a charge vehemently denied by Ukraine, which in turn pointed fingers at Moscow's forces.
The Russian defence ministry said the jail in Olenivka in the separatist-held eastern region of Donetsk was targeted overnight with US-made advanced HIMARS rocket systems. It said in a statement "40 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed and 75 wounded".
Denis Pushilin, leader of the separatists, put the death toll from the alleged prison shelling at 47 people. A total of 193 people were held in the jail at the time of the strike, Pushilin said in comments broadcast on Russian state television.
The Russian defence ministry said the Ukrainian prisoners included members of the Azov Battalion, who defended the Azovstal plant in Ukraine's port city of Mariupol.
'Bloody provocation'
Moscow claimed that the "bloody provocation of the Kiev regime" was designed to discourage Ukrainian troops from laying down their arms and surrendering. "This egregious provocation was carried out to intimidate Ukrainian servicemen," the defence ministry said.
Pushilin, the separatist leader, claimed Kiev forces struck the jail because Ukrainian prisoners had begun to testify.
But Ukraine's military said "the armed forces of the Russian Federation carried out targeted artillery shelling of a correctional institution in the settlement of Olenivka, Donetsk oblast, where Ukrainian prisoners were also held".
"In this way, the Russian occupiers pursued their criminal goals — to accuse Ukraine of committing 'war crimes', as well as to hide the torture of prisoners and executions...," the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement.
Moscow denies involvement in what Kiev describes as war crimes during what it calls its "special military operation".
Around 2,500 Ukrainian fighters surrendered in May under relentless Russian attacks from the ground, sea and air after strong resistance.
The Azov Regiment and other Ukrainian units defended the steel mill for nearly three months, clinging to its underground maze of tunnels.
Meanwhile, in the south, Russian strikes on the heavily bombed city of Mykolaiv killed five people and wounded seven more, the regional governor said on Friday.
"Today, they shot at another area near a public transport stop," Vitaliy Kim said in a statement on social media.
Mykolaiv, near the Black Sea, has seen roughly half of its estimated population of nearly 500,000 people leave and the city has been shelled daily for weeks.
It is the largest Ukrainian-controlled urban hub near the frontlines in the Kherson region, where Kiev's army has launched a counter-offensive to regain control of the economically and strategically important coastal territory.
Source: agencies
