Russia, Ukraine accuse each other of shelling POW prison

Ukraine accused the Russian military Friday of shelling a prison in the eastern Donbas region, killing 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war and wounding 75, to cover up alleged torture and executions. The Russian military said Ukraine used U.S.-supplied rocket launchers to strike the prison to discourage Ukrainian soldiers from surrendering. Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said Russia was seeking to discredit Ukraine and called for a strict investigation into the explosion. The prison is in the internationally unrecognized Donetsk People's Republic, a Russian-backed separatist region in Ukraine, and the region’s leader said the prison held 193 inmates. 

What’s happening to POWs? So far, some have been returned through prisoner exchanges, but most are held in prisons around the rebel-controlled parts of the Donetsk region. In the Ukrainian-controlled part of the region, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko told citizens to evacuate the Donbas region while they still can, adding that Russia “doesn’t worry” about killing civilians. The Ukrainian presidential office said that over a 24-hour period, at least 13 civilians were killed and another 36 were wounded in Russian shelling across Ukraine. 

Dig deeper: Listen to Mary Reichard interview retired U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Colonel Dakota Wood on The World and Everything in It podcast about the costs of the war in Ukraine.