Aggressive actions of representatives of the Ukraine’s Armed Forces in Donbass require attention and drastic measures from law-enforcement authorities. Almost each day we see how civilians are killed and suffering in southeastern Ukraine. Unfortunately, we have to state that competent authorities of Ukraine are doing nothing about that, as they have been for the past two years.
This is why the RF Investigative Committee continues documenting and investigating those crimes against peace and safety of the humanity in accordance with international and Russian laws. The probes have been opened into genocide and the use of prohibited ways and methods of warfare. The Investigative Committee knows the names of commanders of the Ukraine’s Armed Forces who gave orders to kill civilians.
Charges of a crime under Part 3 of Article 33, Part 1 of Article 356 of the RF Penal Code (organization of the use of prohibited ways and methods of warfare) were brought in absentia against commanders of the 92nd and 72nd separate mechanized brigades colonels Viktor Nikolyuk and Andrei Sokolov, who followed criminal orders of superior commanders and officials of the Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense and National Guard and shelled houses in Korovsky District in the town of Makeyevka, outside Donetsk, on 27 October 2016. Two men were killed and five people, including a 6-year-old girl were wounded.
The same charges were pressed in absentia against commander of the 44th separate artillery brigade of the Ukraine’s Armed Forces Colonel Oleg Lisovoi. Together with a subordinate of his, he shelled civilian infrastructure in the town of Gorlovka on 26 May 2015, killing three people, including a teenager, and injuring two local residents.
Andrei Grishchenko, former commander of the 72nd separate mechanized brigade of the Ukraine’s Armed Forces, and currently commander of the Yug team, is also among the accused. On 4 June 2015, his division shelled the settlement of Telmanovo from the Grad multiple rocket launcher, killing a 5-year-old boy.
All of us remember the unprecedented Nuremberg trials and there is no doubt that such actions of Ukrainian military servants in southeastern Ukraine must be assessed during a similar trial. Time will show under which name it will go down in history, but at present the Russian law-enforcment authorities keep on gathering evidence that will make the basis for it.
Acting Head of Media Relations S.L. Petrenko
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