The Investigative Committee of Russia opened two more criminal cases on the facts of shelling of the civilian population of Donbass by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) and national battalions. It was announced on March 3 on the site departments.
“According to the investigation, during March 1 and 2, 2022, from the territory under the control of representatives of the Ukrainian armed forces and volunteer national battalions, regular massive shelling of the settlements of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics is carried out using heavy weapons with high damaging properties,” – the message says.
The UK noted that in recent days Donetsk, Gorlovka, Dokuchaevsk, Yasinovataya, Makeevka, Pervomaisk, Kirovsk and nearby settlements have been under attack by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Objects of culture, electric power industry and water supply were subjected to shelling. As a result of the explosion of shells, 7 civilians were killed, 18 were injured, including a child aged 9 years. More than 120 residential buildings, buildings of 3 medical and 7 educational institutions were damaged and destroyed.
According to these facts, two criminal cases were initiated under Art. 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”).
In addition, the chairman of the RF IC, Alexander Bastrykin, instructed to give a legal assessment of the actions of nationalists preventing the evacuation of civilians. According to the agency, in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol, Volnovakha and other cities, civilians are not allowed to evacuate along humanitarian corridors. Thus, civilians who do not participate in hostilities actually become hostages of the national battalions. This is a violation of international humanitarian law, the Investigative Committee pointed out.
A day earlier, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the National Defense Control Center of Russia, said that nationalists were preventing the exit of civilians along humanitarian corridors from Kyiv, Kharkov and Mariupol. They cover themselves with people like a human shield, provoking Russian military personnel to use weapons against civilians.
On the same day, March 2, Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, speaking at a special session of the UN General Assembly on Ukraine, said that neo-Nazis were preparing provocations with the participation of the civilian population, in order to later blame Russia for them. He also said that in a number of cities, the population that tries to leave the city through humanitarian corridors is forcibly brought back. In particular, he noted that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are holding civilians, including women and children, in one of the schools in Mariupol.
Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine early in the morning on Thursday, February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal the protection of civilians in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DNR and LNR), as well as “the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.” According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Armed Forces strike only at the military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops, nothing threatens the civilian population. With the support of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the DPR and LPR groups are developing an offensive.
On February 21, Putin signed decrees recognizing the independence of the DPR and LPR, as well as treaties of friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance with the republics, which were ratified the next day.
Since 2014, the Ukrainian authorities have been conducting a military operation against the inhabitants of Donbass, who refused to recognize the results of the coup d’état and the new government in Ukraine.
For more up-to-date videos and details about the situation in Donbass, watch the Izvestia TV channel.
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