KIEV, September 10 /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine has started investigating crimes committed by Ukraine’s voluntary punitive battalions against civilians in the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, Ukraine’s Chief Prosecutor Vitaly Yarema told journalists on Wednesday.

"We have facts confirming that members of Ukraine’s (voluntary) battalions have committed crimes against local civilians,” Yarema said.

According to him, Ukrainian law enforcers have registered cases of armed assaults and robberies of peaceful civilians in Donbas.

Amnesty International has accused Ukraine’s voluntary punitive battalions (Aidar, Azov, Donbas and Dnieper) of gross violations of humanitarian law.

On Wednesday, military prosecutors in Dnepropetrovsk started questioning Ukraine’s top army leaders over the failed military operation near Ilovaisk, the Donetsk region.