The UN released a report accusing Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels of torturing and indiscriminately shelling civilians. At least 4,634 people have died and 10,234 have been wounded in the last eight months.
“The actual numbers of casualties are likely to be considerably higher,” the United Nations' human rights office said in reference to the above numbers, adding that the lives of 5.2 million residents living in the devastated region was deteriorating further with the onset of winter and a complete breakdown of localinfrastructure that left homes without water or heat.
Among other things the UN report claims: “The situation is becoming extremely dire for the population, particularly older persons, children and people in institutional care, many of whom are on the brink of survival.”
The latest findings from the Geneva office, based on reports from a 34-member UN monitoring mission in Ukraine during November and other figures through December 12, says large-scale offensives have halted since the cease-fire but skirmishes and indiscriminate shelling of populated areas continue.
UN study blames both sides
The situation in Donetsk is becoming extremely dire
At the same time, the 27-page UN study was careful to assign blame for the humanitarian crisis on both the pro-Western government in Kyiv and the mostly Russian-speaking insurgents who rose up in April against its rule.
"The efforts of the government to safeguard the territorial integrity of Ukraine and restore law and order in the conflict zone have been accompanied by arbitrary detentions, torture, and enforced disappearances of people suspected of 'separatism and terrorism'," the report said. "Most of such human rights violations appear to have been perpetrated by certain voluntary battalions or by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)."
The United Nations said the guerrillas in turn were guilty of creating a criminal state in parts of the industrial regions of Lugansk and Donetsk, which they control with the help of "foreign fighters," referring to the Russian crack troops whose presence Moscow still denies.
"As law and order increasingly broke down, so more human rights abuses, such as killings, torture, abduction for ransom and forced labor, started to be committed by members of armed groups, supported by increasing numbers of foreign fighters," said the report released on Monday.
Limited progress in investigating more than 300 cases
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, elected in a May ballot, has promised to examine allegations of abuses by his troops. But human rights groups believe that some of the gravest crimes are being committed by Ukrainian ultra-nationalist volunteers who joined the fighting after taking an active part in last winter's popular uprising in Kyiv.
The UN report also pointed to lack of progress by Kyiv in investigating more than 300 cases of indiscriminate shelling of residential areas in Kharkiv and Mariupol identified by foreign monitors since the start of the year.
“The actual numbers of casualties are likely to be considerably higher,” the United Nations' human rights office said in reference to the above numbers, adding that the lives of 5.2 million residents living in the devastated region was deteriorating further with the onset of winter and a complete breakdown of localinfrastructure that left homes without water or heat.
Among other things the UN report claims: “The situation is becoming extremely dire for the population, particularly older persons, children and people in institutional care, many of whom are on the brink of survival.”
The latest findings from the Geneva office, based on reports from a 34-member UN monitoring mission in Ukraine during November and other figures through December 12, says large-scale offensives have halted since the cease-fire but skirmishes and indiscriminate shelling of populated areas continue.
UN study blames both sides
The situation in Donetsk is becoming extremely dire
At the same time, the 27-page UN study was careful to assign blame for the humanitarian crisis on both the pro-Western government in Kyiv and the mostly Russian-speaking insurgents who rose up in April against its rule.
"The efforts of the government to safeguard the territorial integrity of Ukraine and restore law and order in the conflict zone have been accompanied by arbitrary detentions, torture, and enforced disappearances of people suspected of 'separatism and terrorism'," the report said. "Most of such human rights violations appear to have been perpetrated by certain voluntary battalions or by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU)."
The United Nations said the guerrillas in turn were guilty of creating a criminal state in parts of the industrial regions of Lugansk and Donetsk, which they control with the help of "foreign fighters," referring to the Russian crack troops whose presence Moscow still denies.
"As law and order increasingly broke down, so more human rights abuses, such as killings, torture, abduction for ransom and forced labor, started to be committed by members of armed groups, supported by increasing numbers of foreign fighters," said the report released on Monday.
Limited progress in investigating more than 300 cases
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, elected in a May ballot, has promised to examine allegations of abuses by his troops. But human rights groups believe that some of the gravest crimes are being committed by Ukrainian ultra-nationalist volunteers who joined the fighting after taking an active part in last winter's popular uprising in Kyiv.
The UN report also pointed to lack of progress by Kyiv in investigating more than 300 cases of indiscriminate shelling of residential areas in Kharkiv and Mariupol identified by foreign monitors since the start of the year.
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