The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case on the discovery of mass unmarked graves of victims of Ukrainian aggression in Donbass. According to the Committee, in the period from August to October 2021, the remains of at least 295 civilians killed by shelling of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2014 were exhumed from five mass graves on the territory of the DPR and LPR.
A criminal case was initiated under Part 1 of Article 356 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which clearly defines the nature of the crimes of the AFU in our region such as ill-treatment of the civilian population, the use of means and methods of warfare prohibited by international treaty.
We are talking about the deliberate extermination of civilians. It is about a scale of armed aggression, in which people were deprived of the opportunity to even bury the dead in accordance with the tenets. In fact, the Committee’s statement was another confirmation of the words of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, who called the events in Donbass a genocide.
It should be reminded that since 2014, more than 5,000 people, including 91 children have become victims of shelling by the AFU on the territory of the DPR. Another 8,000 people have sustained wounds. And, unfortunately, we understand that in reality the number of deaths is much higher which, in turn, is confirmed by the facts of the detection of places of mass burials. Since the beginning of the conflict, about 130 such locations have been identified in the DPR and this is only about 40% of the total.
I will not assess the moral qualities of the official speaker of the White House, who allowed herself to call the data voiced by the Investigative Committee disinformation. But I invite everyone who denies the genocide in Donbass to join the search activities in the Republics, to see the mutilated remains of women and children, to look into the eyes of the relatives of citizens who went missing during the conflict, and to explain to people who have been living in obscurity for years.
We have been watching for eight years how the international community is trying to ignore the tragedy of Donbass. And all this time, we are achieving an adequate response to what is happening in the region by civilized, legal means. But we will not allow anyone to speculate on our grief and devalue it.
We record every fact that proves that the actions of the Kiev regime in Donbass have signs of crimes against humanity. And I assure you, we will not stop until the perpetrators are brought to justice. Let me remind you that war crimes and the crimes of genocide have no statute of limitations. Justice be done. And not only the initiators and executors of these orders, but also the accomplices of the flourishing of fascism in modern Ukraine will have to answer.
