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The Investigative Committee Initiates Another Two Criminal Cases in Connection with Shelling of DPR and LPR Settlements and Inflicting Injuries to Civilians

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation continues to document war crimes of the Kyiv regime against the civilian population of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. 

According to the investigators, on March 13 and 14, 2022, Ukrainian punishers subjected twelve settlements of the DPR and LPR to massive artillery and mortar attacks. The cities of Donetsk, Gorlovka, Dokuchaievsk, Yasinovataya, Volnovakha, and Mariupol of the DPR, as well as the settlements of Pervomaisk, Stakhanov, Irmino and nearby areas of the LPR were hit by Ukrainian shells. 10 civilians were injured, including a child born in 2008.

As a result of the shelling, 78 residential buildings were damaged and destroyed, as well as shopping stalls of the market on Petrovskiy Street, the buildings of School No. 103 and Donetsk Professional Mining Lyceum No. 93 in Donetsk; two fans of the ventilation shaft at A. F. Zasadko Mine were turned off, due to which 83 miners could not get to the surface for a long time.

In the city of Yasinovataya, DNR, the building of the Zhuravushka kindergarten was shelled, in the city of Stakhanov, LNR – Polyclinic No. 3 of the city hospital.

The shelling of settlements by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Ukrainian nationalist armed formations with highly destructive heavy weapons of indiscriminate action 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 every person to life, freedom and personal integrity. The Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which was adopted in Geneva on 12.08.1949, and additional protocols thereto guarantee that the civilian population and individual civilians enjoy general protection from danger arising from military operations and must not be the target of attacks, while civilian facilities must also not be the target of attacks. In addition, there are obvious violations of the 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 October 1907), Article 25 of which prohibits 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).

The investigators of the Main Investigative Department of the IC of Russia carry out investigative actions aimed at identifying and holding criminally liable specific individuals of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and nationalist battalions guilty of firing at civilians.