MOSCOW, November 18 (Sputnik) – The international community should investigate the use of incendiary devices, cluster and white phosphorus munitions in highly populated regions in southeastern Ukraine, Konstantin Dolgov, human rights ombudsman at Russia’s Foreign Ministry, said Tuesday in a Twitter post.
"International community has to insist on investigation of usage of incendiary devices, cluster and white phosphorus munitions in densely populated regions of the southeast [of Ukraine]," the post from Dolgov said.
The ombudsman stressed that the new Human Rights Watch (HRW) report confirmed that in August and October incendiary rockets were used in the city of Ilovaisk and in the southeastern village of Luhanskoye.
The Russian Investigative Committee is continuing to investigate crimes on the use of forbidden methods and means of war in Ukraine, he added.
On November 10 HRW reported the use of incendiary munitions in Ukraine, but the watchdog did not specify which side used the weapons in the conflict. On October 20, the organization published another report on the widespread use of cluster munitions in early October by government-backed forces in Donetsk.
The organization noted that the use of cluster munitions in populated areas violated the laws of war and might amount to war crimes due to the indiscriminate nature of such weapons.
