MOSCOW, September 25 (RAPSI) – Russia’s Human Rights Commissioner Ella Pamfilova has asked the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein to assume personal control over mass graves discovered near Donetsk, RIA Novosti reported on Thursday.

Pamfilova says that she receives numerous claims filed by Ukrainian refugees and Russian nationals who look for their missing relatives. They seek help, and they want their rights to be restored and protected, according to Pamfilova.

On September 23, the self-defense forces in southeast Ukraine discovered several mass graves near Donetsk. Nine bodies from two mass graves have been exhumed so far.

The evidence shows that the area where the mass graves were discovered had been controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Aydar battalion, the satement of the Russian Foreign Ministry reads. The Ministry pledges to ensure that international organizations “provide their objective assessment of the crime.”

Irina Yarovaya, head of the State Duma's Anti-Corruption and Security Committee, called on the International Criminal Court to contribute to these efforts.

Ukraine denies the allegations, saying that “not a single member of the Ukrainian National Guard was ever deployed in that area.”

In the meantime, Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a probe as part of an investigation into war crimes committed in southeast Ukraine.