Updated 7:52 p.m. Moscow Time
MOSCOW, September 24 (RIA Novosti) — Moscow is hoping that the UN, the OSCE and the European Council will provide a just and unbiased assessment of the mass killings of civilians in eastern Ukraine as evidence indicates that the atrocities have been committed by Kiev-led forces, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
"The existing evidence leads us to believe that cold-blooded killings of civilians have been carried out by Kiev-led forces," the ministry said in a statement.
"In particular, the reports indicate that soldiers from the 25th air assault brigade and the Aidar battalion left the site of the massacre near Donetsk several days before the mass grave was found," the statement said.
The ministry called on the international community to carry out a prompt and thorough investigation of the massacre and give an unbiased evaluation of the incident.
It was reported earlier that a mass grave filled with bodies of massacred civilians, killed execution style, had been unearthed on the territory of a mine some 60 kilometers away from Donetsk. Four bodies have been recovered so far, including three identified as women.
Russia called on international organizations to join the investigation into the deaths of civilians buried in the mass grave. A senior Russian diplomat suggested on Wednesday that there were grounds to believe that National Guard volunteer forces had previously controlled the area where the bodies were buried, which might prove their involvement.
Earlier in the day, monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said they had visited the site of the mass grave and were due to present a report on their findings later in the day, according to Andrei Kelin, a Russian envoy to the organization.
Kelin added the OSCE was not mandated to carry out its own investigation, but said it "may assist in coordinating an international probe if it takes place."
