1660279695 Seven Russian fighter jets are destroyed as large explosions rock

Seven Russian fighter jets are destroyed as large explosions rock Crimea airbase

A destroyed barracks in a prison in Olenivka is seen on July 29.A destroyed barracks in a prison in Olenivka is seen on July 29. (AP)

On the morning of July 29, just hours after more than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in a detention center in the Donetsk region, a Russian reporter showed the remains of a US-made HIMARS missile at the scene.

It was the beginning of a comprehensive Russian media offensive with a message that was as cynical as it was brutal. Ukraine, according to Moscow’s version of events, had killed its own soldiers with a HIMARS attack because it did not want them to confess to war crimes and to discourage others from surrendering.

A senior official of the self-proclaimed, Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Eduard Basurin, claimed: “Once the Ukrainian POWs began speaking out about the crimes they committed on orders from Ukraine’s political authorities, it was a blow beaten here.”

Ukraine vehemently denied the claims, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack “a deliberate war crime by the Russians.”

Many of the prisoners in the Olenivka detention center belonged to the nationalist Azov regiment. They were transferred there after they surrendered at the Azovstal Steelworks in Mariupol in May. Azov is deeply loathed by Russians, and the feeling is mutual.

But would Ukraine attack its own soldiers – many considered heroes for their resistance in Azovstal – even if they were asleep?

A CNN investigation Based on the analysis of videos and photos from the crime scene, satellite images from before and after the attack, and the work of forensic and weapons experts, it is concluded that the Russian version of events is very likely a fake. There is almost no chance that a HIMARS missile caused the damage to the warehouse where the prisoners were being held.

Experts consulted by CNN rule out a HIMARS attack on Olenivka – but cannot say definitively what killed and wounded so many prisoners. A lack of access makes definitive conclusions impossible. But experts say most signs point to intense fire, and according to several witnesses, there was no sound of an incoming missile.

Read the special report here.