"Probably the smell I remember the most. An incomprehensible, even some kind of poisonous smell of smoke, burnt bodies,". This is how the 23-year-old Azov soldier "Craft" recalled the night of 29 July 2022 in an interview with Olena Barsukova for the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda exactly two years later.

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Olenivka was a small rural settlement of some 4000 inhabitants at the time of the census in 2001, almost all Ukrainian speakers.  Only 20 kilometres from Donetsk city, in 2014 it came under the control of the separatist Donetsk Peoples Republic and after the 2022 full scale invasion the Russians established the prison camp in a nearby village for which this little Ukrainian town is now notorious.  Look it up online and you will find it is synonymous with the “Olenivka prison massacre” of 29 July 2022, one of the most horrific war crimes in a war where such crimes are commonplace.  193 Azov prisoners in the Olenivka camp had been deliberately transferred to “Barrack 200”, 53 of them died in the explosion and many more were badly wounded.

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The Times on 31 July 2022 hardly noticed the event, burying it in a longer article about grain exports and obscuring the truth by giving prominence to Russian misinformation propaganda:

 “Moscow and Kyiv continued to trade accusations over an explosion early on Friday at a prison camp in Olenivka, in Russian-occupied Ukraine, in which at least 50 captured Ukrainian soldiers died and many dozens were injured. Both sides have blamed each other.

The Russian defence ministry claimed Ukrainian forces had used powerful American-made Himars rockets to attack the camp in what it claimed was a warning by Kyiv to their own forces of their possible fate if they surrendered. US officials said they had found no evidence to back such claims, while Ukraine accused Russia of conducting the attack to cover up the “torture and shooting” of Ukrainian prisoners held there.” 

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The Guardian’s Luke Harding four days later published a more graphic account making it clear that Ukrainian “intelligence, satellite data and phone intercepts” showed that it was a “callous and premeditated [Russian] war crime”.

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The 2024 Ukrainska Pravda interview cited above is an account of what really happened on that night by a witness who survived.

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23 year old soldier “Craft” (his call sign because of his love of Minecraft) had been a student of cybersecurity, telecommunications and radio engineering.  Aware that “things were hotting up” he moved to the military faculty in 2020 and soon after decided to join the Azov regiment.

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When the Russian attack on Ukraine started on 22 February 2022 Craft was in Mariupol and defended the city together with his brothers-in-arms. In April that year he was at the Azovstal works first as a group commander, then as a division commander. After he was wounded he had to stay put at the command post to manage the fighting from there. On the night of 14-15 May, the Azov commander told them all that to save the wounded the regiment would have to go into Russian captivity but there was an agreement that they would be exchanged and sent home within 3 or 4 months. On the 20 May Craft and his brothers-in-arms were brought to the Olenivka camp where they were searched and put into barracks that were meant for 50 but had to accommodate 300 POWs.  He was glad his sleeping bag and mat had not been confiscated as he had to sleep on the ground.  Food was scarce as the kitchen was not ready to feed so many captives.  All the POWs were tortured although he personally escaped the worst treatment as a senior soldier.  He was told to denounce his commander for a fake offense in return for early exchange.  This he refused to do.

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Several days before the terrorist act the Russians took 50-60 people from three barracks where the Azov defenders had been kept and moved them to Barrack 200, which was converted from a former camp shop. The camp governor told them that they were being moved because their barracks were going to be repaired but the prisoners did not believe him as that explanation was illogical.  If the authorities really wanted to repair their former barracks they would have moved one barrack, repaired it and moved the captives back. You did not need lists and people from three different barracks. There seemed to be no logic in their choice of prisoners: there were commanders, soldiers, artillerymen, intelligence officers and even those who were civilians before joining the Azov units on 24 February. The only thing they had in common was that they had all been members of Azov. 

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And the POW working group at barrack 200 later confirmed that that particular barrack had been specially prepared for them.  

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After preparing the barrack the guards moved their observation point 30-50 meters away from the barrack fence and fortified it by digging trenches around it. And on the day of the tragedy ten unknown people in black balaclavas without any identification signs came to guard Barrack 200. Before that it was guarded by the camp warders with the insignia of the “Federal Penitentiary Service” on their clothes. 

The day before the terrorist act the Russians surrounded the fence around Barrack 200 with barbed wire.

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Living conditions in Barrack 200 were very bad as there was very little space for all the POWs who had been moved there. They were sleeping practically on top of each other. It was summer and scorching hot but there was nowhere even to wash your face. There were two 1000 litre barrels of water but they didn’t have taps. 

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It is also interesting that on the day of the explosion electricians came to the barrack to connect up the electric light. All the Barrack 200 inmates had been taken outside while this was happening so they did not know what the Russians were doing in the barrack at that time.

The explosion happened just before lights out that same day.

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The previous day, 28 July, Craft was walking through the exercise area after dinner and noticed a drone hovering over the barrack. At the time he didn’t know enough about drones to identify it but later found out that it was a DJI Matrice because he had noticed the characteristic red-green lights. They are visible when the operator forgets to switch on stealth mode. He pointed it out to his brothers-in-arms and after they all lifted their heads to look at the drone the pilot realised what he had done and switched off the lights.  At that moment the Grad multiple rocket launcher system started working inside the camp walls. This was nothing new as the Russians were constantly using Grad systems like this. That evening all the Barrack 200 inmates were forbidden to go outside the sleeping area of the barrack, only to the toilet one at a time. 

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Craft went to sleep and woke up from the second explosion and from pain. He felt that something was wrong. He had a hole in my stomach, internal bleeding in the abdomen, and his whole body was burning inside. He examined himself – his limbs were intact. Then he saw heavy smoke inside the barrack and understood he had to get out. The interior was in flames and he saw the burnt bodies of his brothers-in-arms. They were practically melted into their beds. His friends “Tower" and “August" were dead.  

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He told the interviewer “Perhaps what I remember most of all is the smell. The incomprehensible, poisonous smell of smoke, burnt bodies, blazing fire over the roof and glass wool that is coming down on me like thousands of tiny needles”.  At some point he found himself in a sort of noise isolation when everything around you is in slow motion and you are watching from the side. This went on until he was carried out and put on the tarmac. Craft called to one of his brothers-in-arms who was running past and he examined him. At that moment the Russians started to fire into the air. The injured POWs were not allowed to go outside the kerbs. They were ordered to lie on the tarmac and not on the grass. For about an hour they were not allowed to be examined by the doctors. Craft lay there for a long time. Finally the POW doctors were allowed to try and to sort out the wounded and assist those who could still be saved.

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The POW medics had only minimal supplies of medicine and the guards just threw them a bunch of sheets for the wounded to be bandaged. When Craft asked for painkillers, the answer was that there only cold powders with paracetamol in them.  He refused as that would not help with such injuries. The guards actually did nothing to help and did not bring any doctors, they did not try to put out the fire in the barrack, and they did not start transporting the wounded before dawn. It would have still been possible to save some of the injured but they were just lying bleeding to death without any help from the guards.

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Craft was in the second priority group for evacuation. “Lemko", his brother -in-arms, was sitting next to him, bending over him and talking, trying not to let him fall asleep. Somewhere around 6 o'clock in the morning, when it was light outside, Craft was loaded onto a Ural truck and the injured men were piled up and taken to hospital. Craft’s diagnosis was a penetrating wound to the abdomen, an impacted pelvic bone, shrapnel in the right hip joint, multiple burns and small shrapnel wounds all aver my body. He learned from the surgeons who operated on him that at the time of arrival he had little more than a litre of blood left in his body. They said that he was lucky his heart kept pumping. They believed it was because he was a sportsman and his trained body managed to survive. 

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They had meals three times a day during weekdays at the hospital. But on weekends the food was worse as the hospital managers went home and women from the kitchen stole food to take it home.

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Usually the doctors treated them well, providing professional medical care. There were enough painkillers. Their guards in the hospital were young men from the guard battalion who also behaved like normal human beings. They were curious about Mariupol and were eager to get information first hand. Of course they were brainwashed and asked questions about "biolaboratories". 

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But some of the cleaning women talked about Bandera, Nazis and fascists. One of them even said "You killed my son, why should I clean your room?". "Then don't clean it." Craft answered. 

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Russian journalists visited the hospital to make video reports. Craft did not remember the first one as it was made when he was still unconscious in the intensive care unit. 

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The injured prisoners were told that it was Ukraine that fired at their barrack with HIMARS. At that time they did not even know what a HIMARS was. Craft saw HIMARS in action for the first time when one of the guards showed him a video of a HIMARS rocket destroying a column of military equipment. After viewing the video he pointed out that if it had been HIMARS, nothing would have been left of them or their barrack.

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It was as clear as day to the prisoners that it was a Russian act. The prisoners were all gathered in one particular barrack and the Russians fired a Grad missile from inside the camp. It was a clear provocation. Craft believed that a thermobaric charge could have been placed inside the barrack by the "electricians" and that charge detonated during the night inside the barrack. It was a planned terrorist attack.

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Once a low life journalist from the DPR (the so-called Donetsk People's Republic) Russian YouTube channel came to interview him. He showed Craft some of his interviews with the old women from the trauma department of the same hospital. One of them showed him her arm which was presumably shot by a sniper. The journalist wanted him to comment on that. He told the journalist that he condemned any illegal action against civilians. The journalist did not like Craft’s comment and angrily left the ward.

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In the hospital Craft was in a ward on the top floor where the security battalion headquarters were located. The most capable of the guards entered his ward and asked “Are you willing to rattle around for 12 hours a Ural truck?". At that time he was just starting to walk after the injury but he replied jokingly "If it's for an exchange, I would be willing to rattle for a day in a Ural. But if it's just for transportation to another place in Russia, then certainly not."  Then he told Craft that there was going to be an exchange and put his name on the exchange list. 

Craft was soon on his way. Packed like sardines in Ural trucks and then flown via Moscow to Gomel the prisoners still thought it was just another transportation to just another colony in Russia. Or perhaps the Russians needed some statements from them at a show trial.  But at Gomel the Belarussians entered our buses and said "Guys, calm down, don't worry. You are going to be exchanged."

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When they reached Ukraine someone said “Guys, you are home." and they saw a lot of other Ukrainian soldiers at the exchange. Everyone had changed a lot after being in Russian captivity. Craft himself lost 27kg of weight while some others lost 40-50 kg of their weight.  

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Craft rejoined the army as soon as he was physically able, first in a radio unit but soon back with the Azov regiment.  Captivity had changed him and although his memory has deteriorated and he will never be as physically fit as before, he told the interviewer “I have become better for the profession because I have no emotion at all. I always make decisions with a cool head.” 

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His final words at the interview were

“My comrades need to be replaced, because the terrorist attack in Olenivka is not the first and not the last act of intimidation, a demonstration of Russia’s impunity.  I spent four months in captivity, and some have been sitting there for three years.  We need to fight for them.  And we need a victory, not ‘peaceful’ arguments.”

 

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