Hollywood actor Steven Seagal visited the colony in Yelenovka in the "DPR", where more than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war died as a result of an explosion in one of the barracks. Denis Pushilin, the head of the DPR, wrote about this on his Telegram channel.

The actor is filming a documentary about the events in the Donbass, he talked with prisoners of war in the Yelenovsky pre-trial detention center, Pushilin said.

“At the meeting, Stephen noted that 98% of those who talk about the conflict in the media have never been here. Therefore the world does not know the truth. He wants to change the way we look at this war,” he added.

The explosion in the colony in Yelenovka occurred on July 29. 53 people died, 130 were injured. The so-called “DPR” authorities blamed him on the Ukrainian side. A few hours after the explosion, the pro-Kremlin RIA Novosti published a video that allegedly showed fragments of a HIMARS projectile used by Ukraine at the site of the explosion.

The Ukrainian side said that Russia staged a terrorist attack in a prison for Ukrainian prisoners of war in order to prevent the supply of Western precision weapons. This was stated by the chairman of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR MOU) Andriy Yusov.

“From the first reports of the use and deliberate shelling of HIMARS precision weapons, it was a special operation against the supply of Western precision weapons to Ukraine. It was a special operation to destabilize Ukrainian society and demoralize Ukrainian prisoners of war,” he said on the air of the telethon.

Steven Seagal has Russian citizenship, which he received in November 2016. On August 4, 2018, it became known that he was appointed Special Representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry for Russian-American humanitarian relations. In September 2018, Seagal expressed a desire to become the governor of Primorsky Krai. And in May 2021, Seagal joined the Just Russia - For Truth party. He was handed a party card during the meeting.