MOSCOW, October 9. /TASS/. Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, on Friday is due to consider a draft resolution calling on the parliaments around the world to investigate the crimes against civilians in south-eastern Ukraine.
“No doubt, the main issue on the agenda will be to consider the appeal by the State Duma to lawmakers around the world and international parliamentary organizations on the need to hold an unbiased, independent and comprehensive investigation into the crimes committed against the civilian population in Ukraine’s south-east,” State Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin told reporters.
Naryshkin said Russia “has repeatedly declared its stance on the issue.” “Such crimes as the events in Odessa, the use of banned warfare, the shelling of residential areas from multiple launch rocket systems and dozens of tortured and massacred people must not remain unpunished,” Naryshkin stressed.
During the so-called Odessa massacre on May 2, at least 48 people died and more than 200 were injured in clashes in the city after radicals set ablaze the regional House of Trade Unions, where pro-federalization activists had taken refuge.
Chairman of the State Duma Committee for CIS Affairs Leonid Slutsky said the State Duma is due to discuss the draft resolution at 11am Moscow time on Friday.
In late September, militias found several mass graves near the eastern Ukraine city of Donetsk. The sites of mass graves were earlier occupied by Ukrainian troops and volunteer battalions.
After examination of one of the graves, forensic experts concluded that people buried there had been killed by shots to the head at close range.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry, parliamentarians, public and human rights organizations have called for an international probe into the mass burial sites.