Donetsk, Mar 22 - DAN. The evidence gathered in Volnovakha after its liberation from Ukrainian gunmen shows that they purposefully destroyed town infrastructure, Donetsk People’s Republic ombudswoman Darya Morozova said on Tuesday.

“Numerous eyewitnesses’ accounts confirm that it was a deliberate act,” Morozova said. “Ukrainian gunmen purposefully deployed manpower and hardware in residential areas turning civil infrastructure facilities into targets. They cold-bloodedly delivered aimed fire at whatever had survived in the fighting.”

The Geneva Conventions and Protocols Additional thereto ban the senseless destruction of civil infrastructure; a violation of these norms is viewed as a war crime. “As the Volnovakha events showed, the norms and requirements of the international community are empty words for Ukraine,” she said.

“All the fact we’re recording will be of great help for the future trial,” the ombudswoman said.

According to the DPR Construction Ministry, Ukrainian armed formations damaged 85 percent of the town’s housing stock and all its social infrastructure facilities. Many buildings are beyond repair.

Volnovakha is located some 35 kilometres southwest of Donetsk. It is a key railway and motor transport hub on the way to Mariupol and a district centre. As of early 2021, it had a population of 21,500. Volnovakha had developed food and construction sectors and agribusinesses. It was liberated from Ukrainian occupation on March 11. The Interdepartmental Operations Headquarters began to work in the town on March 13. *jk