The RF IC opened a case after the death of more than 20 people in Donetsk after a Tochka-U missile strike
On March 14, the Ukrainian military hit the center of Donetsk with a tactical Tochka-U missile equipped with a cluster warhead. The missile was shot down, but due to the falling debris, according to the Russian IC, 23 people were killed and another 18 were injured. The head of the DPR Denis Pushilin declared March 15 in the DPR a day of mourning for the dead.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, on March 14, at about 11.30 Moscow time, a tactical missile "Tochka-U" was fired at a residential quarter of Donetsk from the territory controlled by Kiev.
"The shelling of the city was carried out from the north-western direction, from the area of the settlement of Krasnoarmeysk," said the representative of the department Igor Konashenkov.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation previously stated that as a result of the explosion of a cluster warhead in the center of Donetsk, 20 civilians were killed. The People's Militia of the DPR has already called the incident a terrorist attack and reported that "the attack was carried out with the aim of genocide."
Deputy Minister of Health of the DPR Alexander Levchenko assured that the republic has enough donor blood. He added that an apartment-by-apartment search is being carried out now, as there are victims in the residential sector as a result of the AFU strike on the center of Donetsk.
"14 ambulance crews are working at the site of the strike. Additional operating rooms have been deployed in medical institutions, all shifts of surgeons and traumatologists have been involved," he said. - We are coping."
"Dot-U" carried a cassette charge
The head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, said that Tochka-U carried a cluster charge. According to him, "if it had not been shot down, there would have been disproportionately more victims."
He clarified that the DPR forces have already shot down more than 15 Tochka-U missiles. "Even in 2014-2015, the Tochka U, when it was used for us, [the Ukrainian military] did not load it with cluster-type ammunition," he said.
According to TASS, the fragments of the rocket fell, in particular, near the branch of the Central Republican Bank, where dozens of people were at that moment.
According to Ruslan Yakubov, head of the DPR representative office at the Joint Center for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire Regime, it is difficult to name the exact number of dead and injured.
According to Konashenkov, a representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, the cluster munition in the Tochka-U missile proves that the aim of the strike was to kill as many civilians as possible in Donetsk.
He stressed that "the use of such weapons in a city where there are no firing positions of the armed forces, that is, obviously against the civilian population, is a war crime."
According to him, the decision to use the Tochka-U missile is made by the command of the Ukrainian group of troops after approval by the leadership of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Kiev.
Mourning for the dead
The head of the DPR gave an order to prepare a decree declaring mourning for the dead in the center of Donetsk.
At the same time, he noted that the offensive operation of the DPR forces is beginning to accelerate. The head of the DPR assured that the object from where the missile was fired would be detected and destroyed.
According to him, "Tochka-U" was launched from the territory of Donetsk region, which is still under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
"Of course, this is [a rocket launch] from that part of the former Donetsk region that we have not yet controlled. Firing points are being hit every day and every night, but the amount of weapons that have been pulled in recent months is impressive," he said.
The Kremlin's reaction
"Today we have received very tragic news from Donetsk, where more than 20 civilians were killed by a missile fired by the armed forces of Ukraine," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
He added that all the plans of the Russian leadership to conduct a special operation in Ukraine "will be implemented in full within the deadlines approved in advance."
The use of cluster munitions is prohibited in most countries of the world. They signed an agreement that prohibits the use, transfer and accumulation of such ammunition, which scatter many explosive parts, each weighing no more than 20 kg. The Convention on Cluster Munitions was prepared on May 30, 2008 in Dublin, and entered into force on August 1, 2010. As of February 2022, 123 States have signed the agreement, and 110 have ratified it. Russia and Ukraine have not signed the convention, as well as the United States, China, India, Pakistan, Belarus and a number of other states.
Daria Klester