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Increase of death toll in east Ukraine, says UN report

01 June 2015 21:17 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. While at least 6,417 people have been killed in more than 13 months of fighting in eastern Ukraine, serious human rights violations and abuses persisted in the region, the UN said on Monday in a report, APA reports quoting Anadolu Agency.

Between mid-April 2014 and May 2015, at least 6,417 people have been killed - an increase of at least 300 people since its last report in mid-April 2015 - and 15,962 others were wounded in the conflict zone of eastern Ukraine, the report said.

"This is a conservative estimate and the actual numbers could be considerably higher," noted the tenth report of the UN Human Rights Office on Ukraine, which covers the period from Feb. 16 to May 15 2015.

"More than 1.2 million people internally displaced since the beginning of the conflict suffer from impeded access to healthcare, housing and employment," the report indicated.

"Serious human rights violations and abuses persist in eastern Ukraine, including shelling, executions, arbitrary and illegal detentions, torture, ill-treatment, human trafficking and the lack of justice and accountability, as well as deprivation of economic and social rights that are deeply affecting the five million people living in the conflict-affected areas," said the report.

Residents of the territories controlled by the armed groups continue to be increasingly isolated from the rest of Ukraine and suffer from a lack of protection in the absence of the rule of law, the report said.

"Even with the decrease in hostilities, civilians continue to be killed and wounded," the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement.

Russia denies claims that it is supporting separatist fighters in eastern Ukraine despite evidence that Russian troops are operating across the border and that attacks have been launched on Ukrainian troops from Russian soil.