Updated: Ukrainian ombudsman admits mistakenly attributing Olenivka prison explosion report to UN
Editor's note: This story has been corrected after the Ukrainian Ombudsman’s office acknowledged mistakenly presenting a report by a little-known organization as a U.N. analysis. The original post was subsequently removed from the ombudsman's official Telegram channel.
Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets mistakenly presented a June 30 report by a little-known group as an internal U.N. analysis on the 2022 Olenivka prison explosion, which killed over 50 Ukrainian POWs, Slidstvo.Info reported on July 10, citing a response from Lubinets’s office.
Lubinets referred to a report by the Center for Human Rights in Armed Conflict, a group not linked to the U.N., whose website features only the investigation into the Olenivka explosion.
The investigation, published on June 26, reads that an "internal U.N. analysis concluded that it was the Russian Federation who planned and executed the attack," though the U.N. did not publicly acknowledge Russia's responsibility.
According to Slidstvo.Info, the organization’s website was only created on May 22, 2025.
"A report was published that was based, in part, on information provided by civil society activists. Unfortunately, the Secretariat of the Commissioner did not properly verify the information. Once its inaccuracy was discovered, the publication was removed," Lubinets's response read.
Russia has denied being responsible for the attack but prevented efforts by the international community to independently investigate the attack and contaminated evidence at the site, according to a report published by the U.N.
Kyiv has said that days before the July 2022 attack, Russia deliberately put Ukrainian members of the Azov Regiment, who were awaiting a prisoner exchange, in a separate part of the Olenivka prison building that was later destroyed in the explosion.
Russia has repeatedly violated international conventions protecting the rights of POWs as it continues to carry out its war against Ukraine.
A Russian military court has convicted 184 Ukrainian POWs captured in Kursk Oblast of acts of terrorism, Mediazona reported on June 25.
The POWs captured in Kursk were charged with carrying out a grave terrorist act by a group of individuals, as outlined by the Russian Criminal Code.
Junior Lieutenant Yevhen Hoch was convicted of allegedly carrying out an act of terrorism by taking part in Ukraine's Kursk Oblast incursion.
Yuliia Taradiuk
