News

The Main Investigative Department of the IC of Russia has initiated four criminal cases under Article 356 of the Russian 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 new episodes of crimes of the Ukrainian military.

According to the investigators, on March 25-27, 2022, servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other Ukrainian military formations carried out massive precision artillery and mortar attacks using highly destructive heavy weapons against civilian infrastructure facilities in cities and settlements of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics.

As a result of these actions, 7 people were killed and 14 sustained injuries of varying severity in the city of Mariupol. In the city of Volnovakha, in Kirovsky, Petrovsky, Kuibyshevsky, Novoazovsky, and Leninsky districts of Donetsk, as well as in the urban settlement of Staromikhailovka, one local resident was killed, 6 people were injured, 46 residential buildings were damaged. In the city of Dokuchaievsk, shells hit 3 residential buildings and a diesel locomotive at the Olenovka station of Donetsk Railways. In the city of Makeyevka, 1 residential building and an administrative building of the Shcheglovskaya Glubokaya Mine were destroyed. In the city of Gorlovka, the buildings of the Branch No. 1 of the Gorlovka Meat Processing Plant of OJSC Profgarant were damaged, in the village of Komarovo, power lines were damaged. As a result of shelling the urban settlement of Aleksandrovka, Maryinsky District, 4 houses were damaged.

In the Lugansk People's Republic, as a result of shell hits and explosions in the city of Rovenki, a local resident was injured, 3 residential buildings were damaged. In the city of Pervomaisk, 22 residential buildings were damaged, as well as buildings of a children's and youth sports school, a children's art school, an employment center, a pension fund building, a memorial complex “In Memory of Deceased Victims of Donbass,” a power line pillar, and a gas pipeline. In the city of Irmino, the urban settlement of Donetsk, and in the village of Kalinovo, Popasnyansky District, 1 residential building was damaged.

Shelling of settlements with highly destructive heavy 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 by the UN General Assembly, which proclaims the right of every person to life, liberty and personal inviolability. The Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War 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. In addition, the Ukrainian nationalists' actions obviously violate 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 continues its work to identify all persons involved in crimes against the civilian population of Donbass and to bring them to justice.