Russia has initiated criminal proceedings over the Ukrainian shelling of its Rostov region, the Russian Investigative Committee revealed Saturday.

The committee noted that unidentified men on the Ukrainian territory opened fire Saturday morning on the border areas of the Rostov region using a multiple rocket launcher. No civilian casualties were reported following the incident.

"A criminal case has been opened over the shelling of the border territory of the Rostov region by Ukrainian paramilitary units," the committee said in a statement. 

Concurrently, it announced the underway inspection of the site and the initiation of the criminal case over attempted murder committed by hazardous means.

Ukraine refutes shelling

Kiev refutes all accusations that any shells fell on Russian territory, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Saturday. 

"We resolutely refute all accusations of any alleged Ukrainian shells falling on the Russian territory," Kuleba asserted on Twitter.

He also claimed that Ukraine "has never opened any such fire. We call for an immediate and impartial international investigation of the incidents reported by Russian media."

We resolutely refute all accusations of any alleged Ukrainian shells falling on the Russian territory. Ukraine has never opened any such fire. We call for an immediate and impartial international investigation of the incidents reported by Russian media.

— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) February 19, 2022 

Explosive device found in Lugansk

Security personnel found an explosive device under a bridge in the Lugansk People's Republic, and the Lugansk authorities use that bridge for evacuation buses, a security source told Sputnik.

The explosive device was found in Krasnodon, a city in the LPR- controlled Donbass. 

"The road along which the refugees are being transported turned out to be mined. Previously, there was an explosive device," the source told the Russian news agency.

The Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR) accused Kiev on Saturday of repeatedly shelling the Donbass region with 120mm mortars, banned by the Minsk accord.

DPR Ministry of Emergency Situations said Donetsk had already evacuated 6,600 people, including nearly 2,500 children, over a dramatic escalation of tensions with Ukraine.

Our correspondent had also reported that Ukrainian shelling had begun on Donetsk, and the authorities sounded the air raid sirens.

Donetsk plans to evacuate some 700,000 civilians from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, the DPR's ministry of emergency situations announced late Friday.