News

The Main Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation initiated two criminal cases on a possible crime under Part 1 of 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) in connection with Ukrainian troops firing at civilian infrastructure facilities in settlements of the LPR and DPR.

The investigators found that from March 13 to March 15, 2022, servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other Ukrainian military formations carried out obviously criminal orders of higher commanders and officials of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine that violated provisions of the Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (Geneva, 12.08.1949) and Additional Protocol II thereto. They deliberately launched massive precise artillery and mortar attacks using highly destructive heavy weapons against civilian infrastructure facilities that were not military targets in the cities of Pervomaisk, Stakhanov and Irmino, settlements of Kalinovo and Zolotoe-5 of the Luhansk People's Republic, as well as in the cities of Donetsk, Gorlovka, Dokuchaievsk, Makeyevka, Yasinovataya, Volnovakha, Mariupol, and the urban settlement of Yelenovka in Novoazovsky District of the Donetsk People's Republic.

Premises of the Svitanok store, maintenance facilities, residential buildings and a high-voltage power line were destroyed or damaged due to shell hits and explosions in the city of Pervomaisk and the urban settlement of Kalinovo, as a result of which over 7 thousand people were left without electricity, and 2 civilians not involved in the conflict were injured.

In Zolotoe-5, maintenance facilities and residential buildings were damaged. Moreover, the building of the Alenkiy Tsvetochek kindergarten was ruined.

In the cities of Stakhanov and Irmino, maintenance facilities and residential buildings were damaged in the shelling.

In Petrovsky District of Donetsk, maintenance facilities and residential buildings were damaged. In addition, the shelling resulted in deactivation of the ventilation shaft at the Skochinsky Mine, which prevented 80 miners from getting to the surface.

In Gorlovka and Makeyevka, residential buildings were damaged by shell hits and explosions.

In Dokuchaievsk and Yelenovka, maintenance facilities and residential buildings were damaged, as well as houses of the gardeners' partnerships Zvezdochka and Zvezda. In addition, 2 civilians not involved in the armed conflict were injured.

In Yasinovataya, a civilian who was not involved in the armed conflict was killed in the shelling; a secondary school in the village of Krasny Partizan was damaged; a railway station, a customs clearing center and workshops of the Yasinovataya railway station sustained damage, as well as an electric train, a public transport stop, maintenance facilities and residential buildings.

As a result of the shelling of Volnovakha, 3 civilians not involved in the armed conflict were injured.

2 civilians were injured as a result of the shelling of Mariupol. A girl born in 2014 was injured in Novoazovsky District.

The work on collecting evidence of the commission of war crimes against civilians by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and nationalist battalions continues in order to identify specific individuals and hold them criminally liable.