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DPR special commission registers 35,000 Ukrainian military’s crimes over past six years

According to Natalia Nikonorova, within the six-year period of the commission’s operation it became obvious what an enormous volume of work was needed to be done to document Ukraine’s war crimes

DONETSK, September 7. /TASS/. Some 35,000 cases have been entered since May 2016 into the log of the special commission that collects and registers evidence of the Ukrainian military’s crimes in Donbass, Natalia Nikonorova, the foreign minister of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), said on Wednesday.

"As of today, the united register contains a record of 35,000 entries divided into the following categories: killed civilians (1,135 entries), wounded civilians (4,342 entries), killed children (127 entries), wounded children (483 entries), imprisoned or wrongfully retained citizens (86 entries), destroyed houses and infrastructure facilities (28,987 entries)," she said.

According to Nikonorova, within the six-year period of the commission’s operation it became obvious what an enormous volume of work was needed to be done to document Ukraine’s war crimes, while the current intensity of Kiev’s continued shelling of Donbass speaks about the necessity to step up the work registering further facts related to suspected war crimes and to engage more specialists and experts.

Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine

The situation along the line of engagement in Donbass escalated on February 17. The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) reported back then the worst wave of bombardments by the Ukrainian military, which damaged civilian infrastructure and caused civilian casualties.

On February 21, President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow was recognizing the sovereignty of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. Russia signed agreements on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance with their leaders. Moscow recognized the Donbass republics in accordance with the DPR and LPR constitutions within the boundaries of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions as of the beginning of 2014.

Russian President Putin announced on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics for assistance he had decided to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, noting that the operation was aimed at the denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine.

The DPR and the LPR launched an operation to liberate their territories under Kiev’s control.