Red Cross seeks access to shelled prison in eastern Ukraine

Russia launched nighttime attacks on several Ukrainian cities, Ukrainian officials said Saturday as they and Moscow blamed each other for the deaths of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war in a separatistcontrolled area of the country’s east.

“It was a deliberate Russian war crime, a deliberate mass murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said of the deaths of 53 POWs.

Russia claimed Ukraine’s military used U.S.-supplied precision rocket launchers Friday to target the prison in Olenivka, a settlement controlled by the Moscow-backed Donetsk People’s Republic. The Ukrainian military, however, accused the Russians of shelling the prison to cover up the alleged torture and execution of Ukrainians there.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has monitored the treatment of POWs held by Russia and Ukraine, said it requested access to the prison “to determine the health and condition of all the people present on-site.” But the organization said its request had not been granted.

Michal Dyjuk / Associated Press Hannah Miller (left), Helise Lieberman and Marta Saracyn meet Thursday at the LauderMorasha School in Warsaw, where a summer camp was organized for Ukrainian children.