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Probe launched into death of minors in Donbass

The Investigative Committee of Russia continues to reveal facts of criminal actions by Ukrainian soldiers committed against the civilian population of the South-East Ukraine. In recent weeks, we have witnessed that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are no longer limited to fire attacks, but also using other, more sophisticated, techniques to inflict injuries and kill civilians.

According to the investigators, the Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers, while executing admittedly offensive orders of higher officials, decided to install mine barriers on civilian infrastructure territory that is not a military target, controlled by of the self-appointed Donetsk People's Republic. The purpose of those crimes was to harm and intimidate the civilians. While carrying out the criminal plan, the Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers mined the territory in the area of the Mayorskoe border crossing near the town of Gorlovka. On September 30, 2018, four minors were walking around the area. As a result of ammunition detonation, three of them were killed, one was injured.

Three days earlier, on September 27, a targeted artillery attack with high-casualty heavy weapons on civilian infrastructure objects was performed in the town of Yasinovataya. As a result, a civilian who had not been involved in an armed conflict was injured.

Thus, the Ukrainian Armed Forces again violated the Minsk Protocol and the follow-up Memorandum; provisions of the Convention on Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War and its Additional Protocol II; Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons, which May be Deemed to be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects, and its Additional Protocol II.

Based on said evidence, the Investigative Committee of Russia launched probes into an offence under Part 1 of Article 356 of the Criminal Code of Russia (use of banned means and methods of warfare).

The investigation is identifying specific officials involved in the mining of the territory near the civilian objects, as well as those who gave admittedly offensive orders.

Official spokesperson for the Investigative Committee of Russia S. Petrenko