Ukraine Unhelpful in Russia's Probe Into Donbas War Crimes - Investigator

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd October, 2019) Ukraine, for the most part, is unwilling to assist Russia in investigating criminal cases related to war crimes committed in Ukraine's volatile eastern region of Donbas, a representative from Russia's Investigative Committee said Thursday.

Since 2014, over 300 criminal case have been opened by the investigative committee, with over 280 of them against officers of various Ukrainian law enforcement structures.

"In most cases, Ukraine refuses to cooperate in the investigation of the criminal cases [related to the Donbas conflict], which makes our job more difficult," Dmitry Manshin, the chief of the second investigative department of the Investigative Committee's directorate for crimes related to the use of prohibited means and methods of warfare, told the RT broadcaster.

Manshin said that the majority of evidence the committee collects against Ukrainian security forces comes from eye-witnesses who have fled to Russia from the conflict zone.

The investigator added that murder of civilians, kidnapping, unlawful detention, obstructing journalist work and instigation of violence were among the most common crimes.

In April 2014, the Ukrainian government launched an offensive against the self-proclaimed people's republics of Luhansk and Donetsk, which claimed independence after what they considered to be a coup in Ukraine two months earlier.

Since September 2014, several documents on de-escalation measures have been adopted. However, the warring parties have continued to violate the agreements.