Russian lawmakers urge UN, OSCE, Council of Europe to probe war crimes in Ukraine

Russia October 10, 2014, 13:02

Russia’s lower house of parliament called to investigate crimes against civilians in eastern Ukraine, including the mass graves found in late September near Donetsk

MOSCOW, October 10. /TASS/. Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, unanimously adopted a statement on Friday calling on the parliaments of the world and the international organizations to investigate the crimes against civilians in eastern Ukraine.

In the document, the lawmakers mention the mass graves found in late September near Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, containing dozens of bodies of people who allegedly fell victims of Kiev's military operation in this part of the country.

Russian lawmakers said the actions of the perpetrators of the bloody crimes and those who sponsor them should get a clear legal judgment.”

The State Duma calls on the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe and the global community to conduct an unbiased, independent and comprehensive international investigation into the crimes which have led to many victims among the civilian population in Ukraine’s east.

Russia’s State Duma has called on the parliaments of the world and international parliamentary organizations to take steps to protect the innocent victims of Kiev’s politics.

The chairman of the State Duma committee for the CIS and Eurasian integration, Leonid Slutsky, said the international law is still being violated in Donbass, where people are killed and new mass graves are found.

Russia has repeatedly expressed concerns over massive human rights violations in Ukraine, but Western countries refuse to see an unbiased picture of the current events, Slutsky said.

Slutsky says he's indignated over the United States and the European Union providing Kiev with political, financial and moral support.

Russian lawmakers are also concerned by reports that the West has been sending weapons and military advisors to Ukraine in a move that could undermine the peaceful process and provoke a new wave of violence.

In its latest report, published on Thursday, the OSCE said a total of 1,500 people, including 21 children, have died in Donetsk, in Ukraine's embattled east, since March 2014.

According to the UN, some 3,500 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled Ukraine’s war-torn southeast as a result of clashes between Ukrainian troops and local militias in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions during Kiev’s military operation conducted since mid-April.

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