Ukrainian military intelligence established some circumstances of the explosion in the Olenivska colony, where Ukrainian prisoners of war died: they were tortured there, and the explosives were planted by "Wagners".
Intelligence reported this on August 3.
Thus, it is known that the interrogations of the prisoners were conducted by the investigators of the "Ministry of State Security of the DPR" together with the representatives of "PMC Wagner" and the FSB. During interrogations, Ukrainian prisoners of war were tortured to humiliate and break their moral and psychological state. FSB representatives also planned to involve Ukrainian prisoners in pro-Russian reports. The purpose of the broadcast is to show how the prisoners confess to "committed crimes, atrocities against the local population, renunciation of their views by the fighters, as well as condemnation of the actions of the leadership of Ukraine." Interrogations were carried out on a conveyor belt and regularly, but were not successful.
Intelligence reports that it was the fighters of the "Wagner PMC" who mined the territory where Ukrainian prisoners were kept. Mining was done with the use of a flammable substance, which led to the rapid spread of fire in the room.
The Main Directorate of Intelligence emphasizes that the Russian side did not intend to exchange prisoners of war and, in order to hide the improper conditions and forms of interrogation, which could serve as an evidence base at the Hague Court, deliberately destroyed the prisoners.
- On the night of July 29, explosions rang out in the colony in the occupied city of Olenivka, Donetsk oblast, where the Russians held Ukrainian prisoners of war from "Azovstal". The Russians said that it was the Armed Forces of Ukraine who hit with HIMARS. However, the General Staff of Ukraine stated that the pre-trial detention center was fired upon by the Russians themselves in order to accuse Ukraine of "war crimes" and to cover up the torture of prisoners and executions. More than 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed by shelling, and 130 were wounded. Preliminarily, the Russians struck with a thermobaric weapon.
- The explosions took place on the territory of the industrial zone, in a newly built building that was supposed to be specially equipped to hold prisoners who had been taken out of Azovstal. The building was completed on July 27, after which some of the captured Ukrainian defenders were transferred to it. Ukrainian military intelligence said that the explosion was carried out by the mercenaries of PMC Wagner on the instructions of the owner of PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, "Putinʼs chef". They did not coordinate the organization and actual terrorist attack with the leadership of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
- On July 30, the Ministry of Defense of Russia published a list of Ukrainian prisoners of war who allegedly died as a result of a terrorist attack. There are 48 dead on the list, and 73 names on the list of wounded. Ukraine asks people not to trust these lists because they are unofficial.