On February 24, 2022, the Russian Federation launched a military operation in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin called its goal “to protect people who have been subjected to genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years”. According to the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, as of July 03, through the efforts of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the LPR and the DPR, the entire territory of the LPR was liberated, which was one of the primary tasks of the SMO. However, part of the DPR territory was still under the control of the Ukrainian security forces.
In the area of the Donetsk front, offensive operations were constantly carried out on the positions of the Ukrainian armed formations. On July 04 and 05, 2022, the armed formations of Ukraine shelled many settlements of the Donetsk People’s Republic, particularly, four districts of the city of Donetsk, Horlivka, the settlements of Golmovsky and Aleksandrovka.
And finally, in the evening of July 06, 2022, the Ukrainian military fired at the territory of Makeyevka using large-caliber MLRS.
On July 06, 2022, at about 17:40 (MST), artillery shelling of the Shakhtyorskiy Residential Quarter of the city of Makeyevka was conducted using the BM-27 Uragan MLRS projectiles with a cluster munition dispenser. The shells hit residential apartment buildings No. 8, 13, 20, 23 in the Shakhtyorskiy Quarter, and the territory of the Preschool Educational Institution “Day Care Center No. 117” at the address: 44, Shakhtyorskiy Quarter.
Three children were killed in this shooting (see Fig. 1):
— Dmitry Khrushch, born on 04.11.2005;
— Vladislav Pisarchuk, born on 02.09.2014;
— Maria Evtukhova, born on 08.04.2015.
Four children received injuries of varying severity:
— a girl born in 2009;
— a boy born in 2012;
— a boy born in 2014;
— a boy born in 2014.
Also, two women born in 1946 and 1976 received injuries of varying severity.
This investigation will examine in detail the shelling of the Shakhtyorskiy Residential Quarter of the city of Makeyevka (hereinafter the Shakhtyorskiy Quarter), where a projectile with a cluster warhead was used. Shell hit into a private residential building in 28, Sadovaya Str., will be considered in general terms as a fact that completes the picture of what had happened.
It follows from the above that on July 06, 2022, at about 17:40 (MST), the Shakhtyorskiy Quarter in the city of Makeyevka underwent artillery fire from the Uragan multiple launch rocket system (or its “Bureviy” modification). The shells flew in a direction from west, north-west to east, south-east (azimuth 285 degrees). The shelling was carried out using 220 mm rocket-propelled ammunition. The Shakhtyorskiy Quarter, considered in this investigation, was hit by a cluster munition — a 9M27K rocket projectile.
With a high degree of probability, the units of the 27th rocket artillery brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces under the command of Colonel Dmitry Khrapach or his deputy Colonel Dmitry Horb could be located in this shelling sector. Precisely these persons are responsible for the actions of their subordinates, resulting in the deaths and injuries of women and children.