Car Bomb Targets Olenivka Prison Official in Occupied Donetsk

A car belonging to Dmytro Neielov, the first deputy head of the notorious Olenivka penal colony, was blown up in temporarily occupied Donetsk on the night of Aug. 29. According to Censor.net and Ukrainian Pravda, citing sources in law enforcement, an explosive device was likely planted under Neielov’s vehicle. His current condition following the blast remains unknown.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. Neielov has been directly implicated in the systemic abuse of Ukrainian captives. In the spring of 2026, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Office of the Prosecutor General served him with a notice of suspicion in absentia for committing war crimes. He is formally charged with the torture, beating, and humiliation of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians. The Olenivka penal colony, formally known as the Volnovakha correctional colony, was the site of a mass casualty event on the night of July 29, 2022. Russian forces detonated explosives inside a barracks housing Ukrainian POWs – many of whom were defenders of Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant – killing approximately 50 prisoners and injuring over 130. Russian authorities unsuccessfully attempted to blame the massacre on a Ukrainian missile strike. Previous assassinations of Russian military figures The attack on Neielov follows a pattern of targeted car bombings against Russian military personnel and occupation officials. On June 9, Russian Colonel Damir Davydov, the Defense Ministry’s head of missile and artillery command, was killed when his BMW X3 exploded in the Moscow suburb of Balashikha. Other Topics of Interest Russian Drone Strikes on Kyiv Spark Fires, Injure 3 Russian drone strikes sparked fires across four Kyiv districts on Saturday evening, Aug. 29, following a daytime attack that killed a toddler. Davydov was responsible for supplying missile and artillery ammunition to Russian forces operating in Ukraine. Russian authorities confirmed that an explosive device equivalent to approximately 400 grams of TNT was used in the Balashikha blast, which occurred in a residential neighborhood built for military personnel and veterans. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) subsequently tightened security around high-ranking officers amid growing concerns over targeted attacks inside Russia. The June assassination occurred less than a kilometer from where Lieutenant General Yaroslav Moskalik was killed in a nearly identical car bombing in the same district just over a year prior. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 97% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.