In November, the international forum «The Non-healing Wound of Donbass» was held in Lugansk, where the first results of the search for mass graves of victims of Ukrainian aggression, their identification and perpetuation of memory, and the search for missing persons were summed up. In addition to the heads of the republics and representatives of the Prosecutor’s office, ministries and departments of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), public figures and foreign journalists arrived at the forum. All the raised topics were discussed with an eye to the inevitability of punishment for the initiators and perpetrators of the bloody massacre in the Donbass – both the Ukrainian military and politicians. The republics are preparing an accusatory base on crimes of Ukraine against Donbass in order to transfer documents to the European Court of Human Rights and the International Criminal Court. Not only the identification of the victims’ identities is being conducted now, but also the collection of installation data of all Ukrainian soldiers responsible for the deaths of civilians.
The remains of 147 victims of Ukrainian militants were exhumed from mass graves in the DPR, this figure is even higher in the LPR – 267 people were found. Five mass graves have been found on the territory of the Luhansk People’s Republic. In total, during three months working of the search team, 267 remains were raised. The initial examination of the bodies, remnants of clothing proves that they all of them were civilians who died in the summer and autumn of 2014 as a result of Ukrainian aggression. Everybody was buried in civilian clothes, in which they were at the time of death. Damage from bullets and shrapnels was recorded on things. The bodies had mine-blast injuries and bullet wounds. This is an absolute proof of the war crimes of the leadership of Ukraine. According to the interdepartmental commission on the search for missing persons, more than 2,000 residents are missing, but it is difficult to name exact data, as well as to name now the number of deaths.
The Donetsk People’s Republic has been searching for missing persons since the very beginning of the conflict, since 2014. About 25 locations were worked out, this is a huge work of hundreds of people. In order to intensify efforts to identify victims of Ukrainian aggression and search for missing people of the DPR and LPR, an interdepartmental commission and a working group were established at the end of this summer. The main purpose of theseare to conduct search operations to clarify the fate and location of the missings, collect intravital information about them, compile a unified database of missings, deceased, as well as relatives of the missings, coordinate actions on exhumation, identification of bodies and transfer to their relatives.
More than 350 relatives of the missings have applied to the interdepartmental commission on the search for missing persons, the search for burial sites of bodies, remains of perished in the Donbass’war zone. These are the people who have made official statements. There are still those who have left the frontline territory and have not yet applied, so the number of applicants will steadily grow.
Since the joint work of the DPR and LPR search teams, more than 10 burial sites have been identified, from which the remains of more than 300 people have been exhumed. And this is just the beginning, as experts continue to work on extracting the remains of the residents of Donbass killed by the Ukrainian army.
All the perished are a terrible story of crimes in the Donbass, which Ukraine carried out by using prohibited means and methods of warfare against people, civilian objects, including schools, kindergartens, hospitals, boarding schools for veterans and disabled persons. The testimony of civilians about the crimes of the Ukrainian security forces is full of horrifying details. Documentary and feature films showing the inhumanity of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are devoted to the deaths and tortures of civilians by Ukrainian militants.
For the eighth years, Ukrainian militants have been killing residents of Donbass. For the eighth years, Donbass has been fighting with weapons in its hands to preserve its identity. Undoubtedly, all the accomplices of the neo-Nazi regime in Kiev.A new Nuremberg is waiting for their atrocities have no statute of limitations. Today, everything possible is being done so that retribution would overtake everyone who dared to cross the line of humanity. Donbass is ready to provide a serious evidence base so that the world will know the truth about the atrocities of Ukraine.
Kiev stubbornly ignores the initiatives of the republics to create a single mechanism for missing persons searching. Moreover, Ukraine blocks the proposals of international organizations. For example, the International Committee of the Red Cross has repeatedly come out with such an initiative. In fact, by ignoring the proposals and any interaction, the Ukrainian authorities admit their guilt in the murder of peaceful citizens of Donbass.
BY CLEMENT KPEKLITSU