Susie Blann had long been troubled by the lack of action when it came to uncovering the truth about the explosion that killed more than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war at the Russian-controlled Olenivka prison two years ago.
The U.N. publicly rejected Russia’s claim that Ukraine had bombed its own men with U.S. — supplied but stopped short of assigning blame. Most of the survivors simply vanished into Russia’s vast prison system.
But a handful started to return to Ukraine in prisoner exchanges, and the team methodically tracked them down. It took months, but from those men they had a picture of the measures Russian forces took — including planting HIMARS fragments on the site — to frame Ukraine.
Then, a source gave Blann and Hanna Arhirova an unpublished U.N. report that showed that the U.N. had long since come to the same conclusion — but had never said so publicly. The analysis, which no other media outlet has ever obtained, furthered AP’s own reporting, which included Ukrainian families of survivors who were desperate for justice — and for recognition from their own government.
Vasilisa Stepanenko filmed exclusive footage of Ukrainian war crimes investigation unit, and Evgeniy Maloletka crisscrossed Ukraine for unique portraits of the men who returned from Olenivka haunted by what they had survived.
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