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”.
As of June 2022, the last clashes in Mariupol had already ended, and the liberation of the last major city in the LPR, which was the primary task of the SVO, was nearing completion.
However, a considerable 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. In response to them, the UAF began to apply the tactics of intimidating the civilian population, striking at crowded places, transport and trade hubs.
Thus, on June 18, 2022 alone, ten settlements of the DPR were subjected to artillery shelling: Donetsk (Voroshilovskiy, Kievskiy, Kuibyshevskiy, Kalininskiy, Kirovskiy, Budyonnovskiy and Petrovskiy districts), Makeyevka (Kirovskiy and Chervonogvardeyskiy districts), Horlivka (Nikitovskiy district), Golmovsky, Panteleimonovka, Mikhailovka, Zaitsevo, Yasinovataya, Mineralnoye, and Yakovlevka.
At 7:45 (MSK), explosions of Ukrainian shells were heard in the Kyivskiy and Kuibyshevskiy districts of Donetsk. Within two hours, artillery shelling also began in the Petrovskiy (08:36 MSK) and Kirovskiy (09:15 MSK) districts of the city, and the first shelling of the day in the central (Voroshilovskiy) district of the city began at 10:40 MSK. The shelling of the city continued until the evening.
Among other events, at 15:50 (MSK) another artillery shelling of the day began. The Voroshilovskiy district of Donetsk was attacked using 155 mm rifled artillery.
A a result of the incident, residential buildings at Artioma Street, Universitetskaya Street, and Vatutina Avenue, a cinema, a hotel and a university building were damaged; a man born in 1956 was killed, men born in 1962, 1990, 1952 and a woman born in 1956 were injured.
This investigation will examine in detail a series of attacks on the area nearby the Zvezdochka cinema in the Voroshilovskiy district of Donetsk. Ukrainian military used 155 mm rifled artillery shells. The explosions were heard at 15:50, 16:45 and 17:40MSK.
As follows from the above, on June 18, 2018, at 15:50, 16:45 and 17:40 Moscow time, the area around the Zvezdochka cinema in the Voroshilovsky district of Donetsk sustained artillery shelling with 155-mm rifled artillery. The attack involved at least 16 Western-made missiles, which exploded in a densely populated residential area, killing and injuring civilians.
The shells flew in a direction from north-west to south-east (averaged azimuth 302 degrees). That part of the shelling sector, in which artillery guns could be located, was completely controlled by the UAF.
In the sector there were artillery positions of the 56th SMIBr of the UAF, which is armed with guns capable of firing 155-mm rocket projectiles of Western style.
The commander of the UAF 56th SMBr, colonel Sergey Anatolievych Sirchenko, is primarily responsible for the illegal actions of his subordinates. Colonel Dmitry Dmitrievich Gerasimenko may also be involved. Moreover, the highest military-political leadership of Ukraine is responsible for crimes committed during this armed conflict. Namely: President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief Volodymyr Zelensky and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhnyy.
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