MOSCOW, July 24. /TASS/. More than 300 criminal cases have been opened since 2014 by the Russian Investigative Committee over crimes committed by Ukrainian troops against civilians during the conflict in Donbass, an Investigative Committee official said on Wednesday.

"Since 2014, more than 300 criminal cases have been initiated, with more than 380 episodes of criminal activities being probed into under them. The bulk of these criminal cases have been merged into one criminal proceeding over the use of prohibited means and methods of warfare in southeastern Ukraine," Dmitry Manshin, chief of the second investigative department of the Investigative Committee’s directorate for crimes linked with the use of prohibited means and methods of warfare, said in an interview with the Vesti FM radio station. "About 250 of these criminal cases were opened against officers of various Ukrainian law enforcement structures."

According to Manshin, seventy-three Ukrainian law enforcers, including 20 high-ranking officers, are brought to responsibility under these cases.

He also said that Russian investigators had interviewed more than 143,000 people. Most of them had crossed into Russia fleeing their homes in Donbass amid hostilities. "These people were interviewed as witnesses. More than 20,000 of them, including 2,000 children, have been recognized as victims under the criminal cases," he added.