MOSCOW, June 18 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s Investigative Committee (IC) has launched a criminal probe into Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and Dnipropetrovsk Region Governor Ihor Kolomoyskyi, IC official spokesman Vladimir Markin said Wednesday.
Avakov and Kolomoyskyi are suspected of “organizing murders, using banned means and methods of warfare, abducting people and preventing legal journalistic activities,” Markin said.
“In the near future, investigators plan to decide upon naming Kolomoyskyi and Avakov as defendants and petition the court to add them to the international wanted list as persons accused of committing crimes against the peace and security of the mankind,” Markin said.
The Investigative Committee believes that Avakov and Kolomoyskyi together with other senior officials from Ukraine’s Defense Ministry “deliberately organized and led a military operation with the goal of killing civilians.”
During the 12 days since the inauguration of Petro Poroshenko, military operations have spread throughout the whole of Donetsk Region. The city of Slaviansk, as well as neighboring Kramatorsk and Mariupol, have seen the bloodiest clashes, leading to dozens of casualties.
Ukraine’s Health Ministry last week reported more than 200 civilians, including women and children, had been killed since the beginning of the operations in eastern Ukraine.
The Investigative Committee’s probe aims to scrutinize the war crimes committed on Ukrainian soil.
“We have enough evidence to determine that Avakov and Kolomoyskyi, with their dirty money, are behind all this. They and their accomplices organized the crimes committed by Right Sector and the National Guard, both against their own people and peaceful citizens of other countries, as well as journalists and children.”
Since mid-April, Kiev authorities have been conducting a special military operation in the east of Ukraine to suppress the pro-independence movement. The violence intensified after the People’s Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk declared their independence from Ukraine after holding referendums on self-determination. Hundreds of people, including civilians, have died in both regions over the past months.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier Russia is calling on Kiev to urgently start implementing a crisis-solving road map, put an end to the violence and launch a dialogue through the OSCE.
