The possibility that the Yelenovka colony was hit by HIMARS missiles is virtually impossible, and the Russian version that Ukraine was the striker is implausible. This conclusion was made by the authors of the CNN investigation , who studied videos, photos, satellite images, as well as the work of forensic experts and weapons experts.
Experts interviewed by the publication indicate that the barracks in which the prisoners of war died were almost undamaged from the outside, its walls remained intact, and the roof was destroyed in only a few places. According to experts, the impact of HIMARS would have led to much more significant destruction.
After shelling from HIMARS installations, deep craters remain on the ground, experts say, but no craters and damage are visible on satellite images from Yelenovka: the bunks did not move, the pillars remained intact. At the same time, traces of a strong fire are visible. According to witnesses, before that there was no sound of an approaching rocket.
Specialists also point out that since the colony is only 15 km from the front line, there was no need to use such expensive weapons as HIMARS if Ukraine wanted to strike the structure.
At the same time, the authors of the report note that Russia does not allow experts into the colony to conduct an objective investigation, and therefore it is not possible to draw final conclusions.
The explosion in the colony in Yelenovka occurred on July 29. 53 people died, 130 were injured. The so-called “DPR” authorities blamed him on the Ukrainian side. A few hours after the explosion, the pro-Kremlin RIA Novosti published a video that allegedly showed fragments of a HIMARS projectile used by Ukraine at the site of the explosion.
The Ukrainian side said that Russia staged a terrorist attack in a prison for Ukrainian prisoners of war in order to prevent the supply of Western precision weapons. This was stated by the chairman of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR MOU) Andriy Yusov.
“From the first reports about the use and deliberate shelling of HIMARS precision weapons, it was a special operation against the supply of Western precision weapons to Ukraine. It was a special operation to destabilize Ukrainian society and demoralize Ukrainian prisoners of war,” he said on the air of the telethon.
As early as July 31, Russia invited experts from the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross to investigate the attack on the pre-trial detention center in Yelenovka, where Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed, but the experts were never able to get there. But Elenovka was visited by the pro-Putin actor Steven Seagal, the new leader of the Liberal Democratic Party Leonid Slutsky, who brought with him a “team of objective international experts” from Nicaragua and North Korea, and the author of the fake about Bucha.