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Russian Investigators Launch 3 Cases Into Shelling of Civilians in Donbass

© AFP 2023 / Aleksey FILIPPOVUkrainian nationalist protesters and military veterans take part in a blockade against ongoing trade with the Donbass self-proclaimed republics, on February 23, 2017, in Kryvyi Torets railway station, Donetsk region
Ukrainian nationalist protesters and military veterans take part in a blockade against ongoing trade with the Donbass self-proclaimed republics, on February 23, 2017, in Kryvyi Torets railway station, Donetsk region - Sputnik International
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The Russian Investigative Committee said Thursday it launched three criminal cases into artillery shelling of the civilian population in southeastern Ukraine.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — She cited cases over the three days of last week where Ukrainian government troops shelled two villages and a neighborhood in the city of Donetsk, wounding four civilians.

"Three criminal cases were initiated on the grounds of a crime under Part 1 of Article 356 of the Russian Criminal Code (use of prohibited means and methods of warfare)," committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said.

The Donbass conflict erupted in April 2014 as a local counter-reaction to the Western-sponsored Maidan coup in Kiev that had toppled President Viktor Yanukovych in February. Residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions held independence referendums and proclaimed the People's Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, respectively. Since then, Kiev has been conducting a military operation, encountering stiff local resistance.

In February 2015, Kiev forces and Donbass independence supporters signed a peace agreement in the Belarusian capital of Minsk. The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in Donbass, as well as constitutional reforms that would give a special status to the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics. Despite the agreement brokered by the Normandy Four states (Russia, France, Germany and Ukraine), the ceasefire regime is regularly violated, with both sides accusing each other of multiple breaches, undermining the terms of the accord.

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