Donetsk, May 15 - DAN. The Fair Defence social organisation conducted its own investigation into the Ukrainian army’s strike at Dokuchayevsk on April 28 that caused civilian casualties. The results were made public at the press briefing at the Donetsk News Agency on Tuesday.
"Fair Defence believes that the artillery strike was delivered from the western direction, supposedly from Kiev-controlled high ground areas on the Donetsk-Mariupol road north of the Novotroitskoye settlement in the Elenovka crossing point area", organisation representative Ivan Kopyl said.
The shelling left two persons killed and one wounded. Multiple damage to housing infrastructure was recorded.
Shell fragments and submunition were found at impact sites showing that large calibre smoothbore artillery had been employed. Kopyl said that it might have been a self-propelled mortar (2S9 Nona S, 120mm) or the carrier mortar 2B11, 120mm.
“The use of indiscriminate effect weapons means intentional delivery of strikes at civilians which has the hallmarks of war crime in accordance with Item 2e, sub-item i of the Rome Statute of of the International Criminal Court,” he added.
The situation on the contact line in the region has deteriorated in the past few days. Ukrainian forces are continuing to shell peaceful neighbourhoods of Donetsk People’s Republic towns. Dokuchayevsk, Gorlovka and Yasinovataya remain the hot spots. Also, tensions are running high in the south of the Republic. Earlier, the DPR Operations Command stated that tensions had mounted as Ukraine had changed the format of the Donbass war. On April 30, it launched the United Forces Operation which replaced the so-called “anti-terrorist operation” in the region.*jk