Dozens of Ukrainian POWs believed killed in missile strike

Dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war appear to have been killed in an missile strike on Friday with Moscow and Kyiv accusing each other of carrying out the attackThe incident overshadowed UNbacked efforts to restart grain shipments from Ukraine and ease a looming global hunger crisis stemming from the war now in its sixth monthRussiarsquos defence ministry said 40 prisoners were killed and 75 wounded in the attack on the prison in the frontline town of Olenivka in a part of Donetsk province held by separatists It accused Kyiv of targeting it with USmade HIMARS rockets Russian news agencies reportedOlena Zelenska the first lady of Ukraine was interviewed by British Vogue for its July issue The article has pictures shot by Annie Leibovitz of Zelenska and her husband President Volodymyr Zelensky The interview created a controversy with criticism over romanticising the war and the couple for the glamorous shoot amid the war PicBritish Vogue twitterUkrainersquos armed forces denied carrying out strike and blamed it on Russian forces saying Russian artillery had targeted the prisonldquoIn this way the Russian occupiers pursued their criminal goals to accuse Ukraine of committing lsquowar crimesrsquo as well as to hide the torture of prisoners and executionsrdquo the general staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces saidThe Russian defence ministry said the prison housed Ukrainian prisoners of war and that eight prison staff were also wounded Russianbacked separatist leader Denis Pushilin was quoted as saying there were no foreigners among 193 people held thereldquoThe fighting in the region has been intensifying by the day and civilians must evacuate while itrsquos still possiblerdquo said Donetsk Gov Pavlo Kyrylenko ldquoThe Russian army doesnrsquot worry about civilian casualties They are pummeling cities and villages in the regionrdquoUkraine bombs Russian forcesUkraine stepped up its counterattacks against Russian forces in the south while Moscow bombed Kyivrsquos outskirts for the first time in weeks as Europersquos biggest conflict since World War Two dragged on with no end in sight Fifteen people were injured when missiles hit military installations in Vyshhorod district on the edge of the Ukrainian capital on Thursday Kyiv regional Governor Oleksiy Kuleba said on TelegramExchange of prisonersRussian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Moscow would soon propose a time for a call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in which Blinken has said he wants to discuss an exchange of prisoners held in Russian and US jails Blinken said on Wednesday that Washington had made a ldquosubstantial offerrdquo to obtain the release of US basketball star Brittney Griner and former Marine Paul Whelan both detained in Russia A source said that Washington was willing to exchange convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout jailed in the United States as part of such a dealThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever