MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to the investigation, servicemen of Ukraine’s Armed Forces and National Guard carried out artillery shelling from March 29 to April 3 using heavy weaponry greater than 122 mm under "offensive" orders of the country's Defense Ministry.
"A number of criminal cases are opened in relation to the facts of the continuous shellings in Ukraine’s southeast under the Article 356 of Russia’ Criminal Code [on the use of banned means and methods of warfare]," Svetlana Petrenko said.
The investigation data showed that objects of civilian infrastructure in several inhabited areas of the Donetsk Region had been hit by the shelling. The actions carried out left three civilians dead and more than 25 civilian structures destroyed, including residential buildings, the committee noted.
The military conflict in Donbass began in 2014 after eastern Ukrainian residents refused to recognize the government in Kiev installed in what they believed to be a coup.
Russia, alongside Ukraine, Germany and France, is the guarantor of the Donbass ceasefire stipulated by the Minsk agreements of February 2015.
