MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/. Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened criminal cases on charges of causing deaths to civilians and numerous damages to facilities in Donbass by Ukrainian troops, the Committee’s press service told TASS on Sunday.
"Two criminal cases were opened on charges of the use of methods prohibited by international treaties in an armed conflict (part 1, article 356 of the Russian Criminal Code)," it said, adding that it continues to identify Ukrainian officials who were behind the use of prohibited warfare methods against civilian population in Donbass.
"According to investigators, on February 20, Ukrainian troops conducted massive shelling with the use of heavy weapons and grenade launchers of several settlements in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics," it said, adding that the shelling attacks claimed the lives of three civilians and ruined five dwelling houses.
"Ukrainian troops violated the protocol on the non-use of weapons in southeastern Ukraine and the memorandum to it, as well as the Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and protocol 2 to it," the press service said.