Russian Investigative Committee opens criminal inquiry into recent Ukrainian attacks on Donbas cities and towns
MOSCOW. Feb 7 (Interfax) - The Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal inquiry into the use of forbidden methods of warfare in the gunfire by the Ukrainian military on the Donetsk region at the end of the previous week and the beginning of this week, committee's spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said.
"Over the period from February 4 to 6 of this year servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Ukrainian National Guard have carried out numerous artillery attacks on the territory of the Donetsk region that resulted in the damage to tens of residential houses and administrative buildings, as well as power lines and rolling stock," Petrenko told journalists on Tuesday.
A criminal inquiry was opened over this incident on the basis of the Penal Code article regarding the use of banned means and methods of warfare, she said.
"The Kyiv authorities continue illegally in violation of the Minsk Agreements and the ceasefire obligations stemming from them to actively build up their military presence along the contact line, concentrating extra forces there, including units of the 79th separate airborne assault brigade, as well as the Donbas nationalistic battalions and the Azov regiment," Petrenko said.
"There are few who have questions about the goals and outcomes of such a reinforcement of military presence," she said.
"The Investigative Committee has repeatedly reported regarding progress of the investigation of criminal cases over the perpetration of severe and particularly severe crimes by representatives of the Ukrainian top political and military leadership in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions since May 2014," the committee's spokesperson said.
The Russian investigators classify these actions as particularly grave crimes, namely 'genocide, application of forbidden means and methods of warfare, extremism, participation of mercenaries in the armed conflict or combat actions, kidnapping of people," she said.
"Irrefutable proof of commission of multiple crimes against the peace and security of humankind has been gathered. Criminal cases are being investigated against the Ukrainian top political and military leadership, who give criminal orders to eliminate civilian populations, as well as individual commanders and servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Ukrainian National Guard, who carried out these deliberately criminal orders," Petrenko said.
The defendants in these cases in particular include Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak, Chief of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's General Staff Viktor Muzhenko, other high-ranking officers, as well as Commander of the Ukrainian National Guard Yuriy Allerov, she said.
"Proof collected in over 5,000 volumes by the investigative committee substantiates mass violations of the rights and freedoms of people and a humanitarian catastrophe, which has been lingering in south-eastern Ukraine for a long time and is caused by the criminal actions of Ukrainian authorities," Petrenko said, adding that the committee is ready "to submit the collected materials to international legal authorities at any time in order to make unbiased decisions."