MOSCOW – The Russian Investigative Committee has opened criminal cases against six senior Ukrainian army officers suspected of shelling residential areas in Donbas, Russian Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said.
“The directorate for investigating crimes involving the use of prohibited means and methods of warfare, the Russian Investigative Committee’s Main Investigative Directorate have established the names of the commanders of the Ukrainian Armed Forces units, who carried out artillery shelling of the civilian infrastructure and population in southeast Ukraine,” Petrenko told Interfax on Oct. 24.
In view of this, criminal cases have been opened against Col. Serhiy Sirchenko, Commander of the 57th Separate Motorized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces; Lieut. Col. Oleksandr Shcherbinin, Commander of the 57th Separate Motorized Brigade’s 17th Separate Motorized Battalion; Lieut. Col. Vasyl Zubanych, Commander of the 10th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade; Col. Serhiy Brusov, Commander of the 55th Separate Artillery Brigade; Lieut. Col. Ivan Garaz, Commander of the 30th Separate Mechanized Brigade; Major Serhiy Martseniuk, Commander of an artillery division of the 30th Separate Mechanized Brigade; as well as other unidentified persons from these units, the Investigative Committee spokesperson said.
“The inquiry sees in their actions signs of a crime as provided in Art. 356 part one of the Russian Criminal Code (use of prohibited means and methods of warfare),” Petrenko said.
