MOSCOW, October 7 (RIA Novosti) - The majority of French people are in favor of an EU investigation into the crimes against humanity committed in Ukraine, according to an ICM poll conducted at the request of Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency.
According to the poll, 68 percent of French residents believe that those responsible for the killings of journalists in Ukraine should be punished and crimes committed in the country should be investigated. Men, at 71 percent, are more in favor of such an investigation than women, at 65 percent. Only 24 percent of those polled said they opposed an EU investigation into crimes committed in Ukraine.
Almost three-quarters of French people, 74 percent, believe that crimes against humanity should be investigated first, with 81 percent of those falling in the 35-44 age group expressing the most support for this course of action. Sixty percent of those polled said an EU investigation should focus on journalist tortures and killings in Ukraine. Fifty-seven percent insist on finding out the true causes of the Malaysia Airlines crash near the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk.
In September, several mass graves filled with the bodies of massacred civilians and independence supporters, killed execution-style, were unearthed 35 kilometers (22 miles) northeast of the city of Donetsk in the village of Nyzhnia Krynka in southeastern Ukraine.
In July, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board. A preliminary report on the crash released by the Dutch Safety Board suggested that the plane was hit by high-energy objects.
Ukraine has been engulfed in a violent internal conflict since mid-April, when Kiev began a military operation against independence supporters in the southeastern regions of the country. According to the latest UN estimates, more than 3,600 people have died in the conflict.
A number of journalists have been detained by the Ukrainian authorities since the start of its military operation. Four Russian journalists have lost their lives covering the events in the country, including Rossiya Segodnya photographer Andrei Stenin.
The ICM poll on Ukraine was conducted by telephone among 3,006 randomly selected people on September 17-28, 2014. The poll covered the France, Germany and the United Kingdom. ICM abides by the rules of the British Polling Council, of which it is a member.
