“We are shocked with a new horrible crime in Donetsk, where tens of civilians were killed and wounded in a shelling by Ukrainian military forces at a public transport stop in the morning on January 22,” he said. “We offer condolences to relatives and friends of the victims and wish soonest recovery to the injured,” he added.
“We consider this incident a crime against humanity, a cruel provocative act seeking to undermine effort taken for peaceful settlement of Ukrainian crisis, including some positive shifts taking shape upon the results of the just-ended Normandy quartet meeting of foreign ministers of Russia, Germany, Ukraine and France,” the minister added.
“This is becoming obvious that casualties cannot stop ‘a party of war’ in Kiev and its foreign patrons,” the Russian top diplomat noted.
“We demand an immediate investigation of a crime committed in Donetsk with Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) officials involved in the inquiry,” he said. “Everything should be done to stop Kiev’s gunfire at towns in south-east Ukraine and avert more senseless casualties among civilians,”Lavrov stressed.
Investigative Committee opens criminal case over shelling
Russia’s Investigative Committee (IC) has opened a criminal case over the death of civilians in the shelling of the south-east Ukrainian city of Donetsk, IC spokesman Vladimir Markin told TASS on Thursday.
“The IC Main Investigation Department has instituted criminal proceedings over the fact of shelling of a public transport stop in the city of Donetsk as a result of which civilians have been killed. The case was opened under Article 105, part 2 and Article 356, part 1 of the Russian Criminal Code (murder of two and more persons, use of prohibited means and methods of warfare),” Markin said.
According to investigators, a passenger bus stop in Donetsk came under mortar fire at around 08:30am on Thursday.
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