Some 5,000 residents of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics have been killed in shelling by Kiev forces since 2014, Russian Investigative Committee chairman Alexander Bastrykin said.   “According to investigators, almost 14,000 Donbass residents have suffered as a result of Ukraine’s criminal acts over nine years,” TASS quoted Bastrykin as saying. “Of those, some 5,000 have been killed and almost 9,000 have been wounded.”   More than 120,000 Donbass residents have been recognized as injured parties in cases over harm to health or damage to property, he said.    "The SK has completed the investigation into 138 criminal cases on the use (by Ukrainian armed formations) of banned means and methods of warfare and cruel treatment of civilians and prisoners-of-war,” the SK chairman said.   The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014.  The peace talks that began soon thereafter failed to reach tangible results due to Kiev’s position to settle the conflict by force.   Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation to protect Donbass residents from Ukrainian aggression on February 24, 2022. Prior to that, LPR and DPR Heads Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin asked the Russian leader to provide military assistance.   The Lugansk People’s Republic acceded to Russia on September 30, 2022 following the unification referendum.*i*v