CNN: Russia’s claims on explosion of Olenivka prison are not true

CNN's investigation refuted Russia's version of the death of Ukrainian prisoners in Olenivka.

Report informs that the American TV channel CNN conducted its own investigation of the terrorist attack in the occupied Olenivka, where Ukrainian prisoners of war were held.

It was the beginning of a full-court Russian media offensive, with a message as cynical as it was brutal. According to Moscow's version of events, Ukraine had killed its own soldiers with a HIMARS strike because it didn't want them confessing to war crimes and discouraging others from surrendering.

Ukraine vehemently denied the claims, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calling the attack "a deliberate war crime by the Russians."

A CNN investigation based on analysis of video and photographs from the scene, satellite imagery from before and after the attack, and the work of forensic and weapons experts concludes the Russian version of events is very likely a fabrication.

Experts consulted by CNN discount a HIMARS strike on Olenivka -- but can't say definitively what killed and wounded many prisoners. A lack of access makes definitive conclusions impossible. However, experts say most signs point to intense fire, and according to several witnesses, there was no sound of an incoming rocket.

The probability that the HIMARS missile caused damage to the warehouse where the prisoners were kept is practically excluded. Two Ukrainian officials told CNN that the terrorist attack in Olenivka happened just as they were expecting a prisoner exchange with Russia.

Many of the Olenivka detention center prisoners belonged to the nationalist Azov Regiment. They had been transferred there after surrendering at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol in May. Azov is viscerally loathed by the Russians, and the feeling is mutual.

But would Ukraine target its own soldiers -- many regarded as heroes for their resistance at Azovstal -- even as they slept?

Experts interviewed by CNN do not consider the HIMARS strike on Olenivka but cannot say exactly what killed and injured so many prisoners. Lack of access precludes definitive conclusions. However, experts say most signs point to intense fire, and there was no sound of an approaching rocket, according to several witnesses.

The weapons expert, Chris Cobb-Smith, who reviewed images and video of the aftermath, stated that a building with such thin walls and a metal roof would not have survived a HIMARS strike.

Many analysts also told CNN that it made no sense for Ukraine to use the HIMARS missile if it wanted to hit the building. The location is approximately 15 km from the front line; HIMARS are expensive weapons used for long-range targeting.

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