On the night of July 28-29, 2022, Russians carried out a terrorist attack in the penal colony in Olenivka, where Ukrainian POWs who had previously left Azovstal were held

According to the Russian side, 53 people were killed and 130 injured. The building has been under occupation since 2014, so the Ukrainian side cannot verify, confirm, or deny this information. 

A few days before the strike, Ukrainian soldiers were transferred to the very barracks that were at the heart of the explosion. The exchanged soldiers said that in this way, the Russians were trying to hide the facts of torturing the Ukrainians. 

The Russians themselves claimed that the strike was carried out from the US HIMARS system, but in July 2023, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a statement that the HIMARS missile did not hit the prison in the temporarily occupied Olenivka. 

In October, Ukraine was able to return the bodies of Ukrainian servicemen killed in the attack in Olenivka. However, it is still impossible to establish the exact number of victims.

At the same time, a large number of Ukrainian soldiers remain in captivity.