MOSCOW, November 27 (Sputnik) — The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into the shelling of a hospital and residential buildings in Donetsk, the committee spokesperson Vladimir Markin said Thursday.
“The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case into the shelling of a hospital and two residential buildings in Donetsk which led to the death of a local woman and a child, born in 2002,” Markin said.
The spokesperson said that, according to the committee, unidentified individuals from the Ukrainian Armed Forces and National Guard shelled the area “aiming to destroy a Russian-speaking ethnic group living on the territory of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.”
In mid-April, Kiev launched a military operation in Ukraine’s south-eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in an attempt to suppress the regions’ independence supporters. In September, the warring sides agreed to a ceasefire, although since then the independence supporters and Kiev forces accused each other of the truce violation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia will protect the rights of the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine.
