Overnight into Aug. 29, a car belonging to Dmitry Neelov, first deputy head of the Olenivka penal colony, was blown up in Russian-occupied Donetsk, Ukrainska Pravda reports. According to preliminary information, an explosive device had been planted under the vehicle. Neelov’s condition is unknown, and there has been no official confirmation of the incident from the Russian side.
Scene of the incident
Tsenzor.NET
This past spring, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Prosecutor General’s Office notified Neelov in absentia that he was suspected of committing war crimes. In July, he was placed under European Union sanctions for violations of the rights of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians. The EU Council states that Neelov was involved in torture, beatings, and the humiliation of prisoners at the Olenivka penal colony, which is also located in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine.
On the night of July 28–29, 2022, an explosion at the penal colony occurred in one of the barracks where Ukrainian prisoners of war were being held. More than 50 people were killed, and more than 100 more were wounded. Russian authorities claimed that Ukraine had struck the colony using an American HIMARS rocket system. However, experts who examined video footage, photographs, and satellite imagery ruled out the HIMARS strike theory. In 2025, Ukrainian ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, citing an internal analysis by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, reported that the strike had been carried out from Russian-controlled territory using thermobaric weapons.
The industrial zone of the colony — the section where the prisoners died — had previously been almost empty. According to former Olenivka detainee Vitaly Sitnikov, captured Azov fighters were transferred there from ordinary barracks only about two days before the explosion. Sitnikov also spoke of systematic beatings of prisoners and the presence of Russian troops and special forces on the colony grounds.
This is not the first time a car belonging to the head of the Olenivka penal colony has been blown up in Donetsk. In December 2024, former colony head Sergei Yevsyukov was killed when his Toyota Land Cruiser exploded. His wife, who was also in the car, was severely injured. According to preliminary findings, an explosive device with a yield of about 100 grams of TNT equivalent had been placed under the vehicle. A few days later, Russia’s Federal Security Service reported the detention of a Donetsk resident, who was accused of organizing the bombing on the orders of Ukrainian military intelligence. The Russian security service claimed that the suspect had been promised $10,000 for the killing.
