UNITED NATIONS, August 3. /TASS/. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has announced the launch of a fact finding mission into a shelling attack at a detention center in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

Guterres pointed out at a press conference dedicated to the third brief of the Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance that the UN had received Russian and Ukrainian requests to conduct an investigation. "I decided in line with my own competencies and powers to launch a fact finding mission," he said, adding that he did not have "the authority to do criminal investigations but to launch a fact finding mission."

"The terms of reference for that fact finding mission are being prepared at the present moment, they will be shared with the government of the Russian Federation and the government of Ukraine," the UN chief added.

He was hopeful that it would be possible "to have an agreement on the terms of reference of that mission." "We are at the same time looking for competent, independent people that could integrate that fact finding mission. And we hope to have all the facilities from both sides for access and for the obtention of all data that is necessary to be able to clarify the truth about what has happened. So this is a matter that we took very seriously," Guterres emphasized.

According to Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, on July 29, the Ukrainian military used a US-made HIMARS rocket system to shell a pre-trial detention center in the Yelenovka settlement where captured Ukrainian troops are kept. According to the latest data, the strike killed 50 Ukrainian service members and left 73 wounded. The Russian Defense Ministry said that Moscow had invited experts from the United Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to probe the attack.