OSCE warns of intensifying skirmishes in E Ukraine
A senior official of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has warned of intensifying skirmishes in eastern Ukraine despite a truce, even in areas where there had been little violence in the past.
"It is an escalation," said OSCE’s Deputy Chief Monitor Alexander Hug on Friday as quoted in a DPA report. "We have seen an increase in numbers of hotspots," he further added during a visit to the OSCE headquarters in Vienna.
"There are clear indications that there is a backward trend at the moment," Hug emphasized, noting that not only the number of areas where fighting is reported are multiplying, they are all taking place in towns and cities, thus leading to the growing number of civilian casualties.
The Saturday report also cites Hug as stating that amid the flare-up of violence in recent weeks, the OSCE monitors, who have been tasked with observing the Minsk ceasefire accord and facilitating further dialogue between the warring parties, have seen both the Ukrainian army as well as the pro-Russia forces building trenches, fortifying their frontlines and increasing the number of mine fields.
Additionally, said Hug, the Ukrainian troops and the pro-independence fighters had violated the February truce deal by moving heavy weapons back to the conflict line and using them, rather than keeping their commitment to withdraw them.
Meanwhile, the escalation has led to a rise in the number of fatalities among civilians and military forces as well as the destruction of civilian infrastructure.
This is while the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) also reported on Friday that at least 68 children had been killed and 180 more injured as a result of the persisting conflict in eastern Ukraine since March 2014.
"UNICEF expects the actual number of child casualties to be considerably higher than reported as many areas remain inaccessible due to the conflict," said UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac in a press conference at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva.
Additionally, the UN body adds, the Ukrainian conflict has generated a humanitarian crisis that impacts over five million residents, including 1.7 million children.
More than 6,400 people have so far been killed in the conflict since April 2014, according to UN figures. It erupted when people in Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea voted for rejoining Russia. The violence intensified in April 2014, after Kiev deployed troops to the eastern Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk to suppress pro-Russians.
MFB/NN/HRB
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