- Steven Seagal visited the site of a destroyed Ukrainian prison, according to Russian media.
- Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of attacking the site where more than 50 POWs died in late July.
- Segal advanced the Kremlin’s claims that he was hit by US-supplied HIMARS artillery.
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Steven Seagal visited a destroyed prison in Russian-held Ukraine on Tuesday, where he reiterated Kremlin talks in his role as official spokesman.
Footage broadcast by Russian state media showed the actor in the rubble of a building identified as Olenivka prison in Donetsk, where more than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in disputed circumstances in late July.
While Russia blamed Ukraine for hitting the center with US-supplied HIMARS artillery, Ukraine blamed Russian shelling — a war crime in both cases.
Seagal was there to promote the Russian side in his capacity as the Russian State Department’s special envoy in charge of US-Russia relations. Seagal, a longtime admirer of Russia and President Vladimir Putin, was awarded the title in 2018.
“This is where HIMARS struck,” Seagal said, according to TVZvezda. He went on to say that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered the hit because one of the soldiers began accusing him of war crimes, the outlet reported.
He claimed the damage to the building “definitely looks like a missile,” the outlet reported. “If you look at the burning and other details, of course it’s not a bomb.”
Pro-Kremlin Russian TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov also claimed that Seagal “personally examined” fragments of HIMARS missiles allegedly found there.
Although Seagal has been granted access to the site, the International Red Cross Committee set up to help victims of the attack has not yet been allowed to visit, according to The Moscow Times.
On August 3, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced, at the request of both Russia and Ukraine, that he would launch a fact-finding mission to understand what happened there, according to Ukrinform.
While Seagal’s footage has not been fully authenticated, a BBC image of the site released shortly after the attack is a close visual match to the site where Seagal was filmed. The Ukrainian newspaper The Odessa Journal also reported on the visit.
Seagal, a longtime pro-Russia figure, is making a documentary about the war in the region, according to a contribution by Denis Pushilin, a separatist leader in the Donetsk region who is helping Russia attack Ukraine.