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.
November 2023 saw the end of the unsuccessful offensive attempt by the Ukrainian armed formations (UVF), which began on June 4. The initiative on the battlefield passed to the armed forces of the Russian Federation.
On December 29, the Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation launched the most massive attack in 2023 on the military and military-industrial infrastructure of Ukraine.
On December 30, 2023, residential areas of the city of Belgorod were subjected to artillery shelling by Ukrainian armed formations (hereinafter referred to as UAF) throughout the day.
On February 15, 2024, at about 12:15 (Moscow time), Belgorod came under fire from the UAF. The main destruction and casualties were recorded in the shopping center in Plekhanov Street and at the stadium near school No. 42. As a result of the incident, 131 apartments in 12 multi-apartment buildings, 36 private houses and 4 commercial facilities were damaged, 7 people were killed (including a four-month-old child) and 19 people were injured (including 4 children).
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that 14 RM-70 Vampire MLRS rockets fired by the Ukrainian Armed Forces were knocked down over the territory of the Belgorod region, without specifying whether all the projectiles were shot down.
Killed:
1) Valeria Ch. 1 year old
2) Lyudmila Shpak, 80 years old
3) Ekaterina Strelyaeva, 73 years old
4) Ivan Suprunoov, 68 years old
5) Lyubov Gubkina, 44 years old
6) Mukhomad Shenani, 20 years old
7) Dmitry Protsenko, 30 years old
Wounded:
1) Viktoria T, 8 years old
2) Daniil P., 14 years old
3) Maxim T, 8 years old
4) Gleb P., 7 years old
5) Galina Kopylkova, 56 years old
6) Yulia Golub, 39 years old
7) Tatiana Krivoshapova, 64 years old
8) Tatiana Trubitsyna, 63 years old
9) Nadezhda Shentsova, 63 years old;
10) Artur Alekseenko, 23 years old
11) Tatiana Kudryashova, 65 years old
12) Olga Chekhova, 37 years old
13) Elena Antonova, 60 years old
14) Dmitry Mazikin, 34 years old
15) Alexander Kildyushov, 60 years old;
16) Aleksey Levadnyi, 31 years old
17) Vera Kabanova, 70 years old
18) Marina Ploskina, 39 years old
19) Roman Tsypchenko, 46 years old
This investigation will consider this particular incident, in which at least 10 shells were fired, apparently from the same gun.
As follows from the above, on February 15, 2024, at approximately 15:00 a.m. (Moscow time), Belgorod downtown came under artillery fire by 122-mm MLRS. During the attack, extended-range rockets produced by one of the Western bloc countries were used. The shells flew in a direction from south-southwest to north-northeast along the azimuth of 195 degrees. Let us take the measurement error to be plus or minus 15 degrees.
All shell hits fell on densely populated residential areas of the city and led to damage to civilian objects, death and injury to civilians. Thus, the principles of selectivity and proportionality were violated.
The UAF units were located in the shelling sector. Extended-range 122-mm missiles had been supplied in large quantities by Western bloc countries to Ukraine and are in service with UMF units.
The commander of the RVC, Denis Kapustin, is primarily responsible for the illegal actions of his subordinates. Moreover, the highest military-political leadership of Ukraine is responsible for crimes committed during this armed conflict. Namely, they are President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Zelensky, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Alexander Syrsky and head of the Main Intelligence Directorate Andrey Budanov.
Download the full investigation (rus)