News

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation continues to document the criminal actions of the Ukrainian punitive battalions against the civilian population of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. 

According to the investigators, over the past day, Ukrainian armed formations mounted over 40 artillery and mortar attacks on settlements and civilian infrastructure facilities of the DPR and LPR. As a result of the shelling of the cities of Donetsk, Gorlovka, Dokuchaievsk, Makeyevka and Volnovakha of the DPR, as well as the settlements of Pervomaisk, Stakhanov and Irmino of the LPR, there are civilian casualties.

In the city of Dokuchaievsk, as a result of a shell hitting the control room of the 42nd State Fire and Rescue Unit, 9 employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the DPR suffered injuries of varying severity, one employee died from his injuries. A total of 15 civilians, including one minor, were injured in the shelling. 74 residential and administrative buildings of the people's republics, the cathedral mosque and the Mayak book market in Donetsk, as well as the Stakhanov Secondary School No. 12 were damaged and destroyed; more than 2,700 people were left without electricity and heating.

Shelling of settlements with heavy highly destructive weapons of indiscriminate action by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Ukrainian nationalist armed formations violate the provisions of Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted at the third session of the UN General Assembly by resolution 217 A (III) of 10.12.1948), which proclaims the right of everyone to life, liberty and personal integrity and the Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (Geneva, 12.08.1949) and additional protocols thereto, which guarantee that the civilian population and individual civilians enjoy general protection from the danger arising from with military operations and must not be the target of attacks, while civilian facilities must also not be the target of attacks. In addition, these actions obviously violate Convention (IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land and its annex: Regulations concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land (the Hague, 18.10.1907), Article 25 of which prohibits the attack or bombing by any means of unprotected cities, villages, dwellings, or buildings.

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation initiated two criminal cases under Article 356 of the Criminal Code (ill-treatment of civilians, use of means and methods prohibited by an international treaty of the Russian Federation in an armed conflict).