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Probe launched into shelling of Donbass civilians

The Investigative Committee of Russia continues to register criminal activities of the Ukrainian security forces in Donbass committed against the Protocol to Cease Fire in South-West Ukraine and the related Memorandum, as well as provisions of Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and its Annex II.

The investigation has established one more episode of illegal actions of representatives of the Armed Forces and the National Guard of Ukraine executing orders of higher officials from the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine.

On December 25, 2019, in the territory of self-appointed Donetsk People's Republic, servicemen of Ukrainian Armed Forces and other Ukrainian military units performed a targeted mortar attack with high-casualty weapons on civilian infrastructure objects of a cemetery located in Shahty settlement 6/7 of Gorlovka. That resulted in a civilian born in 1960 suffering injuries.

Into this matter the Main Investigations Directorate of the Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal inquiry into the offence under Part 1 Article 356 of the Criminal Code of Russia (cruel treatment of civilians; use in a military conflict of means and methods of warfare, banned by an international treaty of the Russian Federation).

Investigative actions and search activities aimed to establish all circumstances of the said offence and to identify all military Ukrainian military officials responsible for its committing are ongoing.

Official spokesperson for the Investigative Committee of Russia S. Petrenko