Shelling of the civilian town of Gorlovka in Donbass by the Ukrainian Armed Forces using Grad multiple-launch rocket systems constitutes a “war crime,” Scott Ritter told Sputnik via his telegram channel.
The shelling of a civilian area could not be considered "legitimate" under any military terms, the former US Marine Corps intelligence officer said.
“So there could be no doubt that that the Ukrainian shelling of Gorlovka constitutes a crime under international humanitarian law. There is literally no military expediency behind this kind of action… It’s a purely terrorist action designed to demoralize the citizens of Donbass, of Gorlovka," he stated.
He went on to point out that it also could not be a shelling “by mistake” as the Ukrainian government receives very accurate intelligence from the United States and NATO regarding the position of Russian forces. There are no Russian forces stationed in Gorlovka, or near where the Kiev regime strikes fell, the ex-UN Weapons Inspector pointed out.
This was an act of terrorism, and the international Criminal Court (ICC) should investigate Ukraine’s actions targeting this city, Ritter said.
Ukrainian forces scaled up the intensity of attacks on Gorlovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic on 11 May, shelling it 57 times during the day from 08:00 Moscow time (06:00 GMT). As a result, one civilian was killed and at least six others were wounded.
The targeting of Gorlovka is nothing new, as the Kiev regime relies on terror, and has consistently shelled civilian areas in Donetsk.
Both the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics have been subjected to heavy shelling by Kiev since 2014, when the legitimately elected president of Ukraine was forcibly toppled by the violent US-backed opposition and neo-Nazi paramilitary groups. The mostly Russian-speaking people of Donbass did not accept the February 2014 coup d'etat in Kiev, refusing to knuckle under and go along with the junta's Russophobic agenda and banning of the Russian language.
On 7 April 2014, the Republican People's Council declared the sovereignty of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). Shortly after, on 27 April, the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) was proclaimed. On 11 May of the same year, referendums were held in the Donbass region on the status of the republics, with the majority of the population backing the DPR and LPR's independence from Kiev. Since that time, the Kiev regime has hounded the Donbass with relentless attacks, claiming numerous civilian lives. After efforts to end hostilities via the Minsk Agreements fell through, in February 2022, Moscow launched a special military operation aimed at demilitarizing and de-Nazifying Ukraine to protect the Russian-speaking people from a campaign of extermination unleashed by the Ukrainian leadership.
In October 2022, the Donbass, Zaporozhye, and Kherson regions officially joined the Russian Federation after a series of referendums.