The SBU reports that it has established new facts of supplying weapons and ammunition from Russia to the militants of the so-called LDNR (Luhansk and Donetsk “people’s republics” – regional occupation administrations, – Ed).
Among the weapons seized by the security agency, SBU lists:
- Russian rocket-propelled flamethrowers Shmel, first spotted in the Donbas back in 2014 and still actively used by the Russian-hybrid forces;
- the Russain-made contactless explosive device NVU-P Okhota, first documented in the Donbas in 2020;
- unnamed “anti-personnel mines banned by the 1997 Ottawa Convention” (presumably the Soviet-designed remotely laid POM-2 mentioned further on in the report and shown in one of the report’s images without a caption).
SBU says that according to its investigators, in February 2021, a local resident of frontline Khutir Vilnyi, (Sievierodonetsk Raion, Luhansk Oblast) was killed “due to the use of such weapons by militants” as “he was hit by a POM-2 anti-personnel fragmentation mine in his own backyard.”
Additionally, the Agency says that it has documented the facts of the usage of modern Russian weapons against Ukrainian troops in the east of Ukraine.
One such weapon is the hand-held reusable multi-caliber multifunctional grenade launcher RPG-32 Barkas, which Ukraine had never possessed.
Plus, SBU officers have reportedly discovered fragments of the Russian-made Zanos rocket-propelled grenade in Luhansk Oblast, another piece of Russian weaponry never used by Ukraine or seen in the Donbas before. This weapon was used to attack Ukrainian troops near the front-line city of Popasna, according to SBU.
The security agency says that its investigators have attached the seized samples of Russian weaponry as evidence to the files of criminal proceedings initiated under Article 258.1 (terrorist act) and Article 438.1 (violation of laws and customs of war) of Ukraine’s Criminal Code.
“The investigation is underway to establish and document new facts of illegal activity,” the SBU report reads. and the Agency says that the decision has been now under consideration to “the collected evidence to international courts to bring to justice those involved in war crimes against Ukraine.”
Read more:
- UK researchers trace 95% of weapons in Ukraine warzone
- Largest-yet report on Ukraine invasion documents Russian army
- More evidence of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine
- Another piece of Russian electronic warfare equipment spotted in occupied Donbas
- Russian aggression, documented: How official documents reveal Russia’s involvement in Ukraine (2019)
- What we know about Russian troops in eastern Ukraine (2018)
- Russian participation in the war in Donbas: evidence from 2017
- Donbas “separatists” got 33 types of military systems from Russia (2016)
