The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case of the detection of mass unmarked graves of victims of Ukrainian aggression in the DPR and LPR. Today, the relevant information is published on the website of the body.
“Since April 2014, representatives of the Ukrainian security forces have been constantly shelling the settlements of Donbass, using indiscriminate weapons designed to destroy people and infrastructure most effectively. The consequence of this was not only the destruction of residential buildings and life support facilities, but also the death and injury of thousands of civilians, Russian-speaking groups that do not participate in the military conflict. The direct intent to deprive Donbass residents of their lives is obvious, since the Russian investigation recorded hundreds of such facts, qualifying as the use of prohibited means and methods of warfare,” the statement said.
In the course of the investigation of these crimes, data on mass common unmarked graves were received, which were formed outside specially designated places in connection with the ongoing hostilities.
Thus, according to the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, in the period from August to October 2021, in the area of the city of Snezhnoye, the settlement of Slavyanoserbsk, near the residential area of Sokologorovka in the city of Pervomaisk, the village of Vidnoye-1 near Luhansk and on the outskirts of the village Verkhneshevyrevka, Krasnodonsky district, 5 mass graves were detected.
Of them, the remains of at least 295 civilians who died as a result of indiscriminate shelling by the Ukrainian armed formations in 2014 were exhumed. It is already known that there are bodies of women of different ages among the remains.
The Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case on this fact under Part 1 of Art. 356 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – ill-treatment of the civilian population, the use of means and methods of warfare prohibited by international treaty.
“The Investigative Committee will continue to take all possible measures to implement the principle of the inevitability of punishment for persons committing crimes in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” the department stressed.
