The Russian army on Friday accused Kyiv forces of having bombed a prison in Donbass (east) under the control of pro-Russian separatists during the night, killing 40 Ukrainian prisoners of war and wounding 75 others.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that shots from a Himars artillery system, supplied to Ukraine by the United States, hit a prison in the Donetsk region, where these Ukrainian soldiers were incarcerated. .

According to the ministry, this prison is located near the town of Olenivka (Elenovka in Russian) about thirty kilometers south-west of Donetsk, the capital of the pro-Russian separatists in the eponymous region.

"This outrageous provocation aims to scare Ukrainian soldiers and dissuade them from surrendering," the ministry said.

Russian public television broadcast images presented as those of the charred barracks, without showing any victims. AFP was unable to verify these independent source statements.

The ministry specifies that the prison housed in particular members of the Azov regiment, which distinguished itself in the defense of the city of Mariupol against the Russian army and which Moscow accuses of being a neo-Nazi formation.

After long weeks of siege and resistance at the Azovstal steel site in Mariupol, some 2,500 Ukrainian fighters surrendered in May. The Russian authorities had indicated that they would be imprisoned in Olenivka.

The Himars multiple rocket launcher systems, delivered to Kyiv by the United States, have proved particularly formidable against Russian army positions in recent weeks.