Survivors and UN report blame Russia for explosion that killed over 50 Ukrainian POWs

An explosion ripped through the Russian -controlled Olenivka prison barracks and killed so many comrades two years ago .

Of 193 Ukrainians in the barracks, less than two dozen made it back home.

Around 120 are missing and believed detained in somewhere in Russia .

AP interviewed over a dozen people with direct knowledge of details of the attack.

The U.N. mission was disbanded on Jan. 5, 2023 , having never traveled to Ukraine to conduct its own investigation.

Ukrainian POWs said they ran outside through broken walls to beg the guards to send help for the injured.

They said guards just stood there laughing, tossing rags and flashlights at the panicked Ukrainians .

It took hours before POW medics were sent from other barracks to help.

The Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine had been based in the country since Russia ’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014 .

It combed through testimonies on Russian television from 16 survivors taken to the hospital, examined public images from the site and analyzed 20 statements made by Russian officials who visited the prison.