On 27 July 2025, at night, Russian armed forces fired eight times on the Zaporizhzhia oblast, with FAB bombs.
One of the targets was the Bilenkivska Correctional Colony of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.
At approximately 23:28, Russian armed forces launched an air strike on the territory of the Bilenkivska correctional colony using four guided aerial bombs.
The prison’s dining hall was completely destroyed as a result of the shelling, and the administrative headquarters and quarantine section suffered significant damage.
As a result of the strike, 17 prisoners were killed and 42 were wounded. The seriously wounded were hospitalised in hospitals of the Ministry of Health. About 40 more people suffered injuries of varying severity, and one employee of the facility suffered minor injuries (shrapnel wounds to the face).
About 50 security officers of the prison service were called in to maintain order at the facility. All those injured were provided with medical assistance and are under observation in the medical unit, the duty unit and other departments of the facility. The perimeter of the facility was not damaged and there is no threat of escape.
The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine noted that this attack once again demonstrates a gross violation of international humanitarian law by the Russian armed forces. The shelling of civilian infrastructure, in particular penitentiary institutions, is considered a war crime.
The FAB-500 is a Soviet-designed 500-kilogram (1,100 lb) general purpose air-dropped bomb with a high-explosive warhead, primarily used by the Russian Aerospace Forces, former Soviet republics and customer countries. The original M-54 model was rolled out in 1954, shaped for internal carriage by heavy bombers, a low-drag M-62 version in 1962 was intended for fighter bomber external hardpoint carriage. Early models were unguided, with a single nose fuze, and compatible with most models of Soviet aircraft.
