MOSCOW. Jan 31 (Interfax) - The Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal inquiry into the Ukrainian army shelling of Donbas populated localities on January 30, Russian Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko told Interfax on Tuesday.
On January 30, the Ukrainian armed forces, "while carrying out the deliberately criminal orders of senior commanders and officials from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, have carried out precise gunfire from heavy types of weapons against civilian infrastructure facilities in Donetsk and Makiivka," Petrenko said. "A local woman died, another three men were injured with different degrees of severity in the shelling," Petrenko said.
The gunfire damaged a rail terminal, city hospital, secondary school and other civilian facilities, she said.
"The directorate dealing with the investigation of crimes related to the use of forbidden means and methods of warfare and the Russian Investigative Committee's Main Investigative Directorate have opened a criminal inquiry over a crime under Part 1 Article 356 of the Russian Penal Code (the use of forbidden means and methods of warfare)," the Russian Investigative Committee representative said.
"It is apparent that Ukrainian law enforcement agencies continue to ignore not only all of the agreements reached, but also common sense, conducting artillery shelling against Donbas and eliminating the civilian population," the Russian Investigative Committee representative said, noting that "the attacks staged by them are obviously not accidental." "These are planned actions directed against civilian residents," Petrenko said. "In such a situation the demonstration of aggression by the Kyiv authorities cannot be left unnoticed," she said.
The Russian Investigative Committee recalled that Russia and Ukraine are parties to the Geneva convention on protection of the civilian population during the war, its provisions stipulate that if the convention is breached the parties are compelled to comply with them. "This is why in the situation, when the Ukrainian authorities try not to notice the death of civilian population in Donbas, the Russian Investigative Committee ought to react to this by criminal procedure measures and continue gathering evidence of the crimes against the peace and security of humankind," the Investigative Committee spokesperson said.
The Investigative Committee does not doubt that "sooner or later all the culprits in committing specifically severe crimes will be held to account for each person killed, the broken lives of their relatives, people who lost their homes as a result of this armed conflict," she said.