UN says about 8,000 killed since start of Ukraine conflict
The United Nations says nearly 8,000 people including civilians and soldiers have been killed since the outbreak of conflict in eastern Ukraine.
“Since the conflict began in eastern Ukraine in mid-April 2014, a total of at least 7,962 people ... have been killed,” the United Nations human rights office, known as the OHCHR, said on Tuesday.
The statement was made in a report that highlighted the rise in civilian casualties during the period of May 16 to August 15. The report also added that nearly 18,000 people were injured in the same time period.
“Civilian casualties more than doubled by comparison with the previous three months, with at least 105 people killed and 308 injured compared to 60 killed and 102 injured between 16 February and 15 May,” the report said.
The Western-backed Ukrainian government in Kiev and the pro-Russia forces in Donbass, eastern Ukraine, signed a truce accord in February 2015 in Minsk, Belarus, which called for the establishment of a buffer zone and the pullout of heavy artillery from the line of contact.
The UN report added that the Ukrainian government was still guilty of multiple violations of the truce, but it made efforts to implement the terms of the Minsk peace deal.
The pro-Russians were making no attempts to implement the agreement and were persisting with efforts to establish parallel, and illegal, state structures in areas under their control, the UN report stated.
The UN report also referred to a “persistent pattern of arbitrary and incommunicado detention by the Ukrainian law enforcement... and by military and paramilitary units” being carried out in areas controlled by the Ukrainian government.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak says the intensity of fighting in eastern Ukraine has fallen to its lowest level since the conflict started.
On March 16, 2014, Ukraine’s eastern peninsula of Crimea held a referendum to transfer the control of the region from Kiev to Moscow. The peninsula rejoined the Russian Federation, triggering a conflict that has yet to die down.
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