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The Main Investigative Department of the IC of Russia continues to document Ukrainian nationalists' crimes against the civilian population of the Lugansk and Donetsk People's Republics. The investigators initiated two more criminal cases on a possible crime under Part 1 of Article 356 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (ill-treatment of civilians, use of means and methods prohibited by an international treaty of the Russian Federation in an armed conflict).

According to the investigators, on March 28-29, 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 the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics.

In the DPR, Donetsk, Gorlovka, Dokuchaievsk, and Mariupol, as well as the settlements of Sartana, Kalmiussky District and Alexandrovka, Maryinsky District, were subjected to devastating shelling. As a result, 10 people were killed; 6 civilians, including one minor, were injured. About 30 residential buildings were damaged, as well as a building of the Ugol Donbassa enterprise branch in the Dokuchaievsk industrial zone. The investigators also found that 11 residents of Mariupol, who were injured in the shelling of the city from March 3 to March 26, turned to medical institutions.

In the Lugansk People's Republic, civilian infrastructure facilities in the villages of Krymskoye, Slavyanoserbsky District, and Berezovskoye, Popasnyansky District, were shelled by Ukrainian nationalists. Two civilians were injured, a residential building was damaged.

Just as before, the Ukrainian military forces acted intentionally, carrying out obviously criminal orders of higher commanders and officials of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. Their actions seriously violate the norms of international law – the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaiming the right to life, liberty and personal inviolability, the Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and protocols thereto, which guarantee that the civilian population and individual civilians enjoy general protection from the danger arising from military operations, and should not be the target of attacks, as well as Convention (IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land and its annex, which prohibits attacking or bombing unprotected cities, villages, dwellings, or buildings in any way.

Within the limits of its powers, the Investigative Committee of Russia is identifying Ukrainian nationalist officials involved in these crimes against the peace and security of mankind.