US says Russia aims to fabricate evidence in prison deaths

By AAMER MADHANI and EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia is dismissing a claim by U.S. officials that it’s working to fabricate evidence about last week’s deadly strike on a facility housing prisoners of war in eastern Ukraine. U.S. intelligence officials determined that Russia is looking to plant false evidence to make it appear that Ukrainian forces were responsible for the attack on Olenivka Prison that left 53 dead and dozens wounded. That’s according to a U.S. official familiar with the intelligence finding. Russia claims Ukraine’s military used U.S.-supplied rocket launchers to strike the prison in the Moscow-controlled region. Ukrainian’s military denies that. A Kremlin spokesman on Thursday dismissed the U.S. claim, saying Russia has “nothing to hide.”