MOSCOW, July 29. /TASS/. The Ukrainian military’s strike on a pre-trial detention center containing Ukrainian prisoners of war is a war crime, Deputy Militia Chief in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Eduard Basurin said on Friday.

"I believe that it is a war crime because the Ukrainian authorities killed their own people as all the prisoners of war are Ukrainian nationals," he told the Rossiya-1 TV channel.

Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov said earlier that last night’s attack on the facility containing captured Ukrainian troops, including members of the Azov Battalion, had involved a US-made HIMARS rocket system. According to the latest information, the attack killed 53 out of 193 people in the detention center. Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into the strike.