Interview with Girkin could be used in probe into war crimes - deputy prosecutor general
He said this in a comment to BBC News Ukrainian in connection with an interview that Ukrainian journalist Dmytro Gordon conducted with former separatist leader Igor Girkin.
"Such interviews are valuable for additional facts and details. For example, the so-called 'prosecutor' of Crimea confirmed that she knows about a suspicion notice and criminal prosecution against her in Ukraine," Mamedov said.
He added that during his interview, Girkin also spoke about specific facts of his committing particularly grave crimes.
"I do not rule out that in the future this information will be the subject of consideration in the investigation into serious violations of international humanitarian law - war crimes and crimes against humanity," he said.
According to Mamedov, information on the control and supply of weapons by illegal armed groups from the Russian Federation is of special value to the investigation.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said it would give a legal assessment of Gordon's interview with Girkin after studying the material.
Gordon's interview with Igor Girkin (Strelkov), a leader of "DPR" militants in 2014 and the so-called "DPR minister of defense," was published on the website of the Gordon online news site on May 18.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down over conflict-hit Donbas in July 2014. There were 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board. All of them died. The JIT reported that the plane had been shot down from a Buk missile system that belongs to the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces stationed in Kursk.
In May 2018, the Netherlands and Australia formally accused Russia of being responsible for the downing of the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet.
On June 19, 2019, the international Joint Investigation Team named four suspects believed to be involved in the transportation and combat use of the Buk missile system, from which flight MH17 had been downed. Three of them are Russians: Igor Girkin (Strelkov), former colonel in Russia's FSB intelligence service and former so-called defense minister of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic"; Sergey Dubinskiy, general (at the time of downing – colonel) of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces and head of the so-called "Main Intelligence Directorate of the Donetsk People's Republic"; Oleg Pulatov, lieutenant colonel of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. The fourth suspect is Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian civilian, who fought on the side of the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic."
Girkin, also known as Strelkov, has repeatedly admitted that he took an active part in the process of Russia's annexation of Crimea.
It was he who said on Twitter that Russian-backed separatists shot down the plane, which later turned out to be Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. The attack killed 298 people.
In early May, Gordon posted on YouTube a recording of an interview with Natalia Poklonskaya.
Poklonskaya is a former Ukrainian lawyer who sided with Russia after the occupation of Crimea in 2014. According to a decree issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin, she was appointed "prosecutor" of Russia-occupied Crimea. She was later elected to the Russian State Duma.
Ukraine filed a number of criminal cases against Poklonskaya, including for high treason and involvement in the illegal banning of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people.
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