The management of the Olenivka penal colony together with representatives of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation deliberately committed actions that led to even greater losses of Ukrainian servicemen during the tragedy, the prosecutor of the 18th Department of the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO), Dmytro Martsyn, has said.

"We worked with the victims and witnesses who were later returned in the process of exchanges from the aggressor state. Based on the results of such an investigation, we have established that the direct management of the colony, acting together by prior collusion among themselves, with other, unfortunately, currently unidentified representatives of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation, they deliberately committed acts and omissions that led to even greater losses. That is, we have established that if at least 41 people died directly from the explosions, then later at least nine more Azov soldiers died as a result of failure to provide proper medical care," he told a press briefing at the Media Center Ukraine.

The prosecutor explained that it is, in particular, about untimely rendering of assistance, obstruction of military medics who were there in rendering assistance, untimely evacuation, improper evacuation, use of improper means of evacuation, which worsened the condition of the injured, as a result of which at least nine more defenders died both before and during the evacuation.

Six Ukrainian public organizations, including the Community of Olenivka Families and others, have sent an address to the International Criminal Court, which aims to ensure the principle of inevitability of punishment for war crimes committed by the Russian Federation.

"My colleagues and I are common in our assessment of these events, such as murder and torture, i.e. war crimes, the responsibility for which is stipulated in Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. In our message, we call on the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to investigate the said crimes, using all the capabilities of the International Criminal Court to ensure the principle of inevitability of punishment," Roman Martynovsky, a leading expert of the Regional Center for Human Rights, said.

He noted that the tragedy in Olenivka is a crime that has no statute of limitations and must be punished.

"We as the authors of this report are convinced that the crime committed by agents of the aggressor state, the murder and torture of unarmed captives who were protected by the Third Geneva Convention, a crime that strikes with its perfidy and cynicism, a crime the likes of which the world has not seen since the Second World War, has no statute of limitations and must be punished," Martynovsky said.

As reported, on July 28, 2022, the armed forces of the Russian Federation arranged a thermobaric explosion on the territory of the penal colony in Olenivka, Donetsk region, where Ukrainian prisoners of war (POW) were kept. The explosions occurred after a debarkation between 23:00 on July 28 and 01:00 on July 29, 2022. At the time, 193 POWs of the Azov regiment were being held in the barracks.

On February 27, 2024, based on the results of the investigation, the so-called head of the Olenivka colony and his first deputy were reported on suspicion of committing criminal offenses, violation of the laws and customs of war, which is associated with premeditated murder under Part 2 of Article 438 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code.