MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/. Ukrainian militants act like international terrorists, using civilians as human shields, said Sergey Mazur, an investigator for particularly important cases of the military Investigative Department of Russia’s Investigative Committee’s branch for the Southern Military District.

"There are numerous facts of the use of civilians as human shields, and this is international terrorism, which we encountered during the hostage-taking at the Budyonnovsk hospital and the Beslan school. We are investigating exactly the same means now - fascism and international terrorism have no rules. Fascism and international terrorism do not abide by the system of international humanitarian law," he said.

Mazur said he had spent most of his life at the forefront of the fight against international terrorism.

"The work of military investigative bodies, besides ensuring the observance of law and order in the military, probes into crimes committed by terrorists against military personnel, as well as civilians. The investigator is among the first, and often the first, to arrive at the scene of an incident to inspect it, collect physical evidence, and record traces of a crime. In the Chechen Republic, where I started my service, my work came amid the rising up of the underground resistance. Later, in the Syrian Arab Republic, we also faced crimes of unprecedented brutality against civilians," Mazur said.