Terrorist attack in Olenivka: security guards fire at soldiers who broke out of barracks - investigators

Author of the investigation, journalist of the Media Initiative for Human Rights Maria Klymyk said this during the presentation of the investigation into the massacre of Azov soldiers in Olenivka colony No. 120 at the Media Center Ukraine - Ukrinform.

According to her, on the eve of the tragedy, the military went around the entire territory of the place where they were held and found some weaknesses in the fence, which saved some people.

Klymyk noted that after the military could no longer do anything in the barracks itself and could not pull out the bodies of other people because of the fire, they began to get out.

"They walked quite a long way from here (from the barracks - ed.) to the exit of the colony itself. There they were already met by the guards, who opened fire on the guys who were running screaming for help because they were afraid that they would run further," the journalist said.

According to her, not a single representative of the colony's security or administration approached the barracks and did not help to pull out the wounded, provide medical assistance or extinguish the fire - it was all done by the military themselves, who made bandages from the remnants of the clothes they were wearing.

"They even tried to hand over one of the seriously wounded outside the territory (of the colony - ed.), because some of the guys saw the ambulances arriving at the colony walls. However, the ambulances were not allowed to enter the territory, and the guy they managed to transfer through the colony gates was returned back. So, there were no doctors then - at that time they were simply forbidden to enter the territory of the colony," Klymyk said.

According to her, instead, the captured medics who heard the explosions immediately gathered all the few medical supplies they had and waited for the guards to come to them to take them away to assist. But these medics waited for about 2-3 hours until someone came to pick them up.

"And when they ran to the alley (which was located between the barracks and the exit from the colony - ed.), one of these doctors described it to us as a very horrible picture: some of the guys were running, some were crawling, all of them were covered in blood, with traumatic amputations, brain injuries, deep abdominal wounds, and they were in this condition and were getting to this alley for help on their own. And then one of the guards started throwing pieces of cloth to bandage the wounds," informed the representative of the Media Initiative for Human Rights.

This medic said that because the colony administration was in no hurry to provide assistance, 5 soldiers who were pulled out of the barracks died on that alley.

According to the human rights activists, 6 hours passed from the moment of the explosion until the Azovs were evacuated.

"All this time, the medics and the wounded themselves, who were not in such a critical condition, tried to save their comrades on their own. Then the seriously wounded began to be taken away, but not even in special ambulances, but in ordinary military KAMAZ trucks. That is, they were put there on stretchers, on top of each other," she said.

Klymyk noted that the soldiers were in serious condition, but no one paid attention to this, and two or three more people died in the first KAMAZ on the way to the hospital, presumably because they were transported in an improper condition.

"According to one of the soldiers who was riding in the second vehicle, this KAMAZ was driving at high speed and braking on potholes. That is, the guys suffered significant injuries on the way to the hospital from the way they were transported," informed the representative of the Media Initiative for Human Rights.

According to her, the next day, on July 29, one of the Azov soldiers, who was not in the barracks, was forced to identify the bodies of his comrades.

As reported, on the night of July 29, 2022, the Russian Federation committed a terrorist attack by exploding a barracks in a penal colony in Olenivka, where Ukrainian prisoners of war were held. At least 50 Azovstal employees were killed.

On July 29, 2022, the DIU reported that Ukrainian prisoners of war in Olenivka were killed by "Wagnerites".