The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation continues to identify officials involved in the use of prohibited means and methods of warfare against the civilian population of Donbass.

According to the investigators, on February 21, 2022, servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine carried out massive shelling of several settlements in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics with highly damaging heavy weapons and mortars, prohibited by the Minsk Protocol.

The investigators found out that a civilian was killed in a shell explosion on Markina Street, Petrovsky District, Donetsk.

In addition, as a result of the artillery shelling of the village of Prishib, LPR, another civilian was seriously injured.

In addition, as a result of repeated shell hits, the Donetsk filtration station in Yasinovatsky District was cut from electricity, and water supply to several hundred residential buildings was stopped. In addition, buildings of two city schools were damaged in Donetsk.

By shelling the settlements, the Ukrainian servicemen intended to commit murder or cause severe bodily harm to an unlimited number of civilians residing in the south-east of Ukraine and not participating in the armed conflict. The Ukrainian armed forces violated the Protocol on the Cessation of the Use of Weapons in southeastern Ukraine and the Memorandum thereto, as well as the provisions of the Convention Relative to Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and Additional Protocol II thereto.

A criminal case has been initiated on a possible crime under Part 1 of Article 356 of the Criminal Code (use of means and methods prohibited by an international treaty of the Russian Federation in an armed conflict).