Olenivka Prison Massacre: almost three years on

On 29 July 2022, during the early stages of the second Russian invasion of Ukraine, a building housing Ukrainian prisoners of war in a Russian-operated prison in the village Molodzhine near Olenivka, just southwest of the city of Donetsk on the road to Mariupol in what is now the Russian-occupied Donetsk, was destroyed. This killed 53 to 62 Ukrainian prisoners of war and left 75 to 130 wounded.The prisoners were mainly soldiers belonging to the Azov Regiment who defended the Azovstal complex, the last Ukrainian stronghold in the siege of Mariupol that ran from 24 February 2022 to 20 May 2022.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that the Russians blew up the barracks in order to cover up the torture and murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war that had been taking place there, and Ukrainian authorities provided what they said were satellite images of pre-dug graves and intercepted communications indicating Russian culpability. Although the Russians disputed this, the Ukrainian account has acquired widespread international credibility.

What happened to the remaining injured prisoners of war after the destruction of the complex is a story being pieced together by a group called the Olenivka Community, and some intrepid but anonymous amateur journalists. Here we present three stories of what family members and friends have been able to piece together about Ukrainian Prisoners of War who survived the explosion at Olenivka.

Anna's and Oleh’s story 

Anna Lobov’s daughter was one month old when her husband, 32 and another Azovstal defender, left for the front line.

She recalled how on 31 July, just a few days after the Olenivka attack, her husband’s name, Oleh, appeared on both lists of those killed and those injured. “I didn’t really know what to make of it,” Ana, 29, now based in Zhytomyr [a city west of Kyiv], said.

The last time Anna spoke to her husband was on 16 May 2022, the day of the surrender, when he sent her a personal text but didn’t give any information or promise he would return.

But on 17 August that year, she spotted Oleh in a Telegram video from a hospital in Donetsk.

“That’s how I found out he was alive,” she said. “That was the only time since the start of the full-scale war that I saw him.”

In the video, Oleh said he had shrapnel wounds all over his body and a wound to his hand, Anna said.

“You could see that he’s lost weight and if you looked into his eyes, you could see how tired he felt.”

Through a released prisoner who she spoke to in December that year, Anna was able to obtain some information about her husband, including that he had spent six months in hospital and had been put in isolation after catching a supposed cold.

Speaking of how her daughter would play with a family picture attached to a fridge magnet, Anna said she has now started avoiding talking about her father to her now-toddler girl, Mariia.

But she would probably still “recognise her daddy” if she found any pictures “in the wardrobe or somewhere where I keep them”.

Ana says that ensuring her daughter grows up with her dad “encourages me to continue fighting for the release of my husband and his friends and those people who turned out to be in captivity”.

She went on: “I believed that international organisations were going to visit the victims of the terrorist attack, get reliable lists, and that the seriously wounded would be taken from hospitals to a third country, but this did not happen either in a month or almost a year later”.

Anastasiia's and Artem’s story

Anastasiia Hondiul, 47, hasn’t had any news of her husband Artem, 41, since she saw him on Russian TV in August after the Olenivka attack, in which he was reportedly injured.

She knows he had already been severely injured while at the Azovstal plant, with part of a mine believed to still be stuck in his pelvis.

She has now made it her priority to raise awareness of PoWs who, two years on, are still in foreign hands under unknown circumstances.

Anastasiia, who at one point started taking anti-depressants to tackle the anxiety of her husband being on the frontline, has traveled to Geneva to address the UN and the Red Cross, as well as Poland to speak at the Warsaw Human Dimension Conference, organised by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

She also traveled to Canada, where she visited her daughter and organised peacefuls protests in Montréal and Ottawa.

Anastasiia and Anna also met the papal ambassador to Ukraine, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, for support.

The work continues

In July 2024, the Russians filmed propaganda interviews with prisoners of war, including Oleh and Artem. At the same time, for the first time in more than two years of captivity, they were allowed to call their wives. However, the conversations were short and information about their health and place of detention is unknown. They have heard nothing since.

The Olenivka Community, in which Anastasiia and Anna are active, is trying to speed up the exchange of severely wounded prisoners of war from the terrorist attack in Olenivka, as they may still be in danger.