Russian Investigative Committee to probe genocide concealment in Donbass
The Russian Investigative Committee will look into the involvement of persons speaking on behalf of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office in the concealment of genocide of the Russian-speaking population in Donbass, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Interfax.
“The inadequate defensive reaction of a group of individuals acting under the canopy of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office prompts us to study their role in the concealment of genocide against the Russian-speaking population [of Donbass],” Markin said.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said earlier it had started a criminal inquiry into a number of officials of the Russian Investigative Committee following the launch of a Russian inquiry into felonies committed in Donbass.
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The Ukrainian side has opened criminal cases against Russian Investigative Committee officials under article 258-3 (assistance to a terrorist organization), article 343 (interference in the activity of a police officer) and article 344 (interference in the activity of a public official) of the Ukrainian Criminal Code.
Kyiv described the Russian Investigative Committee’s operations as an act of interference in its activity.
“There is an illegal interference in the activity of the law enforcement authorities of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” the Prosecutor General’s Office emphasized.
The Russian Investigative Committee’s Criminal Investigations Department said on Monday it had opened a criminal inquiry into the genocide of the Russian-speaking population in south-eastern Ukraine.
“A criminal investigation has been started under article 357 of the Russian Criminal Code on counts of genocide of the Russian-speaking population in the Lugansk and Donetsk people’s republics. Investigators have established that since April 12 2013, in violation of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and other international agreements condemning genocide, unidentified persons from among Ukraine’s top political and military leadership, the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the National Guard and Right Sector, have been issuing orders to exterminate Russian-speaking citizens living in the territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk republics,” Markin told Interfax.
Investigators have established that “the killings of Russian-speaking citizens were committed with the use of Grad and Uragan multiple rocket launchers, unguided airborne missiles with cluster warheads, Tochka-U tactical missiles and other types of heavy offensive weapons of indiscriminate effect,” Markin said.