Today, a people's tribunal has gathered in Lugansk and sentenced the government in Kiev to war crimes. President Poroshenko, RNBO Secretary Turchynov, Premiers Groysman and Yatsenyuk, and others were among the defendants.
Sergey Arsenichev will share the details. He's on a direct line with our studio.
— Hello, Sergey. How was the tribunal formed and what was their verdict?
— Hello, Olga. The Ukrainian People's Tribunal was founded in 2014 after the infamous war had begun. It started off as a non-profit organization, and it remains such to this day. Today, long before the verdict was announced, tens of thousands of people gathered on Lugansk's central square. Obviously, no courtroom would accommodate these many witnesses. They focus on the fact that the people's tribunal emphasizes that all Ukrainian citizens have suffered from the actions of the government in Kiev. Thus, it's called the Ukrainian People's Tribunal. People have come here today with pictures of hundreds of victims and names of cities and villages that had been subject to artillery bombardment when some Ukrainians were attacking others, following third-party orders.
Anna Sorokina, the Head of the War Crimes Committee in Donbass: "We want the whole world to know that the Ukrainian regime and these defendants, including Poroshenko's administration, being Ukrainian citizens and government officials, violate their own laws, and worst of all, kill their own citizens".
The criminal case contains 1085 volumes, which is almost 300,000 pages, along with dozens of terabytes of audio and video data. This footage has already been seen by the entire world in one way or another. However, they've failed to respond to what's been happening in Donbass regarding international law, which is exactly what's happening here today. Donbass residents haven't just witnessed the horrors of war, they've documented everything. Today, they've found the main 8 defendants guilty, which are all well-known locally and globally. They've decided upon the toughest available sentence, which is life imprisonment.
Leonid Pasechnik, Head of State of the LPR: "With this verdict, we reach out to the other side, to the rest of Ukraine. We urge them to assist us in our political battle. We want to overthrow the corrupt government in Kiev. We must win because war means casualties for us and for the Ukrainian people".
While the sentence was read, people from the crowd would yell that the murder of innocent children, the economic embargo of Donbass, and initiating a war should lead to a tougher sentence.
"If only we could prosecute them in person, not in absence, if we could just line them up here somewhere, and shell them as they have shelled out our cities of Donetsk, Lugansk, and the suburbs. So many people have died, and for what?"
These criminal case files will soon be passed along to the Ukrainian Attorney General's Office, the Security Service of Ukraine, and the Supreme Court. Here, in Donbass, they hope that eventually, these files will be grounds for a real criminal case against those who've been sentenced in absence here today.
—Thank you. That was Sergey Arsenichev reporting about the Ukrainian People's Tribunal meeting.
