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Investigative Committee of Russia: All Those Involved in the Commission of Crimes on the Territory of Donbass Will Be Identified and Held Accountable

A.I. Bastrykin, the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, has instructed his subordinates to speed up work on recording and collecting evidence on the facts of crimes committed by the Ukrainian military and nationalists on the territory of Donbass, as a result of which civilians are being killed and injured, the servicemen are subjected to torture and ill-treatment.

Under the special military operation in Ukraine, investigators of the IC of Russia continue to record new facts of crimes committed not only against the civilian population, but also against military personnel doing their duty. The facts under investigation include the shelling of settlements and their inhabitants; the destruction of schools, hospitals, kindergartens; obstruction of the movement of people along the humanitarian corridors opened by the Russian side. And this is only a small part of the criminal actions on the part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the national battalions against civilians in Donbass.

Since the aggravation of the situation in February 2022, the IC of Russia has initiated more than 80 criminal cases, including on the elements of the crime under Article 357 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (genocide), Article 356 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (ill-treatment of the civilian population, the use in an armed conflict of means and methods prohibited by an international treaty of the Russian Federation), Part 3 of Article 30, Paragraphs a, f, g, Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (attempted murder), Article 206 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (hostage-taking), and for a number of other elements of the crime.

Officers of the Investigative Committee have been investigating all criminal facts against the civilian population of Donbass since 2014, for eight years; more than 500 criminal cases have already been initiated against more than 100 people, including representatives of the military and political leadership and law enforcement agencies of Ukraine.

Many civilians felt safe for the first time in eight years only when they arrived in Russia, where they are provided with comprehensive assistance and support.

The Investigative Committee of Russia, in cooperation with the law enforcement agencies of the DPR and LPR, intends to establish all the circumstances of the committed crimes and thoroughly investigate them; the IC of Russia already has the necessary evidence of their commission. Despite any obstacles from the international community, all those involved in the brutal crimes against civilians in Donbass will be identified and, of course, will be punished.