MOSCOW, March 13. /TASS/. The chief of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, has issued orders to the IC’s Main Investigative Directorate to open a criminal case over the shelling of a hospital in Volnovakha, where at least six people were killed, the IC’s press service told the media on Sunday.
"The IC’s chief ordered the investigators to collect and put on record all evidence concerning the shellings and bombardments for further thorough investigation of the Ukrainian military’s crimes," the news release runs.
The IC said that according to evidence available at this point, a tank of the Ukrainian forces and a multiple missile system GRAD opened fire on a hospital with patients while retreating from Volnovakha. Before that they were conducting fire from the hospital’s building and its the premises against advancing Donetsk militia with grenade launchers and tank guns. Hospital patients, including expectant mothers, were used as a human shield.
"According to the hospital’s staff the Ukrainian military personnel had planted mines inside hospital buildings before retreat," the IC said. The bodies of at least six civilians were found in front of the hospital. The number of casualties remains unconfirmed, because the debris have not been cleared away yet.