“On behalf of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Igor Krasnov, the Prosecutor of the Rostov Region prepared and signed an application to the Rostov Regional Court on recognizing as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide of the Soviet people the established and newly revealed crimes committed by the Nazi invaders during the Great Patriotic War on the territory of Rostov region," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.
This statement was preceded by "many days and painstaking work" of prosecutors in cooperation with the FSB and the Investigative Committee of Russia, the department stressed.
They recalled that in the Rostov region and in other territories during the period of its occupation, special punitive units that arrived after the Wehrmacht units and the auxiliary structures formed by them operated.
They systematically shot civilians and prisoners of war of the Red Army, and also used "other ways to destroy people."
“During the period of temporary occupation of the region by the Nazi invaders and their accomplices, at least 126 thousand peaceful Soviet citizens and prisoners of war were destroyed,” the Prosecutor General’s Office added.
In October 2021, Russia sent requests to Germany, Canada, Latvia, Poland, the United States and Estonia for legal assistance in the investigation of the genocide of the peoples of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War and received information from a number of countries.
In addition, ex-militaries of Nazi Germany are currently being tested for involvement in the genocide.
In March, the Investigative Committee decided to merge the criminal cases on the atrocities of the Nazis against the civilian population into one - on the genocide of the peoples of the USSR.