Russia accuses Ukraine of genocide against Russian-speakers. *West has raised fears of a “false flag” operation.
Developing Store:
Russia’s Investigative Committee claimed on Wednesday that mass graves of hundreds of Russian-speaking civilians had been found in the Donbas region, as the Russian government continued to accuse Ukraine of genocide and human rights violations in Donbas.
More than 130 mass graves of civilians that were killed during Ukraine’s aggression were found in the Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, the head of the self-proclaimed republic, said at a news conference on Friday.
“On the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic alone, more than 130 mass graves of the victims of the Ukrainian aggression were found and opened,” he said. “They are mass graves of civilians that were killed during operations by Ukraine’s armed forces in the DPR in Snezhnoye, Debaltsevo, Khartsyzsk and Ilovaisk.”
The head of the DPR said most of the dead were people aged 30 to 60 years. “Among the bodies that were retrieved were the bodies of elderly people, women and children,” he said. “People were buried in civilian clothes that they wore at the time of death – so we are talking about civilians.”
Most of the people, whose cause of death could be established, were killed by gunshots, mine explosions and shrapnel wounds, as well as by skull injuries caused by blunt objects, Pushilin said. He said authorities started a criminal probe into these facts.
Additionally, on Tuesday afternoon, the People’s Militia of the LPR reported that one of its members had been shot and killed by Ukrainian forces, saying that they responded with artillery fire against Ukrainian positions.