MOSCOW, October 28. /TASS/. More than 18,000 civilians in the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics have been affected since April 2014 as a result of Ukrainian punitive operations, with 5,000 of them killed, Svetlana Petrenko, spokeswoman for Russia’s Investigative Committee, said in a statement.

"Within the framework of an investigation, the Investigative Committee established that, as a result of Ukrainian punitive actions, since April 2014, in the LPR and DPR, over 18,000 civilians have suffered, with 5,000 of them killed while the rest sustained serious injuries," the statement reads.

According to the Investigative Committee, when in 2014 the Donbass residents did not support the Ukrainian coup d’etat and anti-constitutional measures that followed, including restrictions on using the Russian language, the Kiev regime began deliberately targeting civilians.

"In response to the free expression of an opinion and the refusal to recognize the illegitimate power, Ukraine’s top political and military leadership, planning to obtain control over Donbass’ lands and resources by force, made a decision to partially annihilate the population of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions by murdering the residents of these regions, causing grave harm to their health and creating living conditions aimed at their physical extermination," the agency added.

To implement this plan, the Ukrainian leadership engaged units of the National Guard, the Ukrainian armed forces, Ukraine’s Security Services and other armed formations, including nationalists and mercenaries who, using various types of weapons, including combat aviation, Tochka-U tactical missile systems, multiple launch rocket systems, conventional artillery, tanks, mortars and other arms with indiscriminate effects, have been systematically shelling peaceful cities.