Officers of the Russian Investigative Committee (SK) Department for the Lugansk People’s Republic have exhumed the remains of 46 Ukrainian artillery attack victims from mass graves in the region, the SK press service reported.
“<...> As of today, 46 bodies have been exhumed. The SK has identified 14 victims and found their relatives,” the report said.
Earlier this week, SK investigators, forensic experts, and activists from the social organization “We Won’t Forget, Won’t Forgive” retrieved the bodies of 20 civilians from a mass grave in Shchedrishchevo, a satellite settlement of Severodonetsk.
“Some victims had missing body parts and showed blast traumas and other wounds which apparently caused their death,” the SK press service said.
Exhumation is part of the SK investigation into the criminal case over genocide and use of banned methods and means in the armed conflict by Kiev forces. The SK said that Ukrainian armed formations had delivered 3,000 artillery attacks on civilians and civil infrastructure killing 800 people including children in the period from 2016 through December 2022.
Proceedings have been instituted against 16 Ukrainian servicemen, and courts ordered their arrest in absentia, the SK said.
The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014. The peace talks that began soon thereafter failed to reach tangible results due to Kiev’s position to settle the conflict by force.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation to protect Donbass residents from Ukrainian aggression on February 24, 2022. Prior to that, LPR and DPR Heads Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin asked the Russian leader to provide military assistance.
The Lugansk People’s Republic acceded to Russia on September 30, 2022 following the unification referendum.*i*v
