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The Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation holds a brief meeting in Mariupol

The Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia Mr. Alexander Ivanovich Bastrykin held a routine brief meeting of the headquarters for the investigation of crimes committed by the Ukrainian formations against the civilians and Russian military staff in the territory of the Lugansk People’s Republic, the Donetsk People’s Republic and Ukraine in Mariupol. It was attended by: Mr. Eduard Valeryevich Kaburneev – The First Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Mr. Konstantin Evgenievich Korpusov - The Deputy Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia – The Head of the Main Military Investigation Department, Mr. Anatoly Ivanovich Sazonov – The Acting Head of the Main Directorate of Forencic Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Mr. Mikhail Anatolyevich Ignashkin – The Deputy Director of the Forensic Expert Center of the Investigative Committee, including: the Senior Officials, the investigators and forensic specialists from the divisions of the Main Directorate, and ther the Main Investigative Directorate, as well as the Military Investigative Bodies of the Investigative Committee of Russia.

The Head of the Committee was informed about the present-day status of the investigation related to the Kiev regime crimes committed against the peace and security of mankind. The investigative actions are in process with the surrendered Ukrainian servicemen and members of the Azov Battalion, who were located on the territory of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol. Several hundred of mobile phones and other devices belonging to the nationalists are being examined and inspected. The mentioned devices and saved data in them were found on the liberated territory of Azovstal. All photographs which were found in the memory cards of the devices, clearly testify the adherence of their owners to the Nazi ideology, including the images of a swastika, portraits of Hitler and other illustrations on this subject. Also in some phones there were images of civilians who became victims of nationalists.

New Individuals from the Military Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were identified as the ones involved in the commission of cruel crimes against civilians. Among them was Roman Kostyuchenko  - the Senior Sergeant of the intelligence troop of the 36th Marine Brigade, who fired a shot from a sniper rifle at a civilian, riding his bicycle nearby. He acted intentionally and he was motivated exclusively by the desire to kill anyone who was walking by. The man died from his wound. At the same time, during the interrogation, Kostyuchenko explained that he did not perceive the Mariupol inhabitants as his native people. Such criminal acts of the military staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are similar to the actions of nationalists, characterized by cruelty towards people of a different community. 

During the inspections of the crime scenes, the textbooks for military staff were found with general characteristic notes of information that was of interest to students. Thus, it became obvious that all recommendations were adopted as a guide to action on the use of residential buildings to deploy the sniper positions and on the physical elimination of any civilians encountered along the way.

In Mariupol, about 800 civilian infrastructure facilities were inspected, including the educational and medical institutions, the residential buildings as part of the work to document the damage caused. The Investigators have appointed numerous comprehensive construction and technical assessment forensic examinations, some of which have already been finalized. The investigative experiments are being carried out; the interrogations of the affected residents of the city are being carried out. Every day, forensic specialists and experts of the Russian Investigative Committee examine over the 100 construction sites. This is done by the mobile teams that include investigators. The work is carried out considering the data taken from the Technical Information Bureau, so several hundred documents have been formed for further construction, technical and appraisal examinations. These are the inspection protocols, photos, videos and technical documentation for buildings, and in some cases – these are the interrogations of the owners of the buildings and the facilities. At the same time, the inspections of the engineering infrastructure of the city are carried out, including gas distribution stations, electrical substations, water utility units. 

Separately, the participants of the meeting discussed the issues of submitting the finalized criminal cases to the Prosecutor's Offices of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. It was noted that in the past week, 2 criminal cases were sent to the DPR Prosecutor’s Office for the subsequent submission to court, in accordance with the norms of the current legislation and the cooperation agreement concluded between the Russian Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor’s Office of the Donetsk People’s Republic. A number of criminal cases on crimes against the peace and security of mankind are at the final stage, they are also the subject to submission to the Prosecutor's Offices of the republics of Donbas.  As part of the investigation, a significant amount of evidence was collected confirming the involvement of the accused in the alleged crimes.

At the meeting, it was noted that the investigation is taking measures to document and identify all the circumstances of the unprecedented artillery attacks committed in recent days on civilians and socially significant infrastructure in Donetsk. In cooperation with the Ministry of Defense of Russia, the work is underway to identify specific members of the AFU who issued and executed criminal orders to shell the civilian targets. At the same time, contrary to the assertions of the Kiev authorities, there is evidence of the use of munitions supplied by NATO member countries, including France, against civilians in particular. Despite all the evidence of the use of Western weapons against the civilian population of Donbas, the task of the Investigative Committee of Russia is to obtain and document this information in accordance with the law. In this regard, the Head of the Committee instructed his subordinates to the urgent appointment and receipt of the results of the expert studies due to identify the heavy munitions manufactures.  

In the final part of the meeting, Mr. A.I. Bastrykin awarded the Officers of various Units with the Departmental medals called "Valour and Courage". It was timed to coincide with the past State Holiday - the Day of Russia. He noted their high professionalism in carrying out the assigned tasks.