Violence in Eastern Ukraine Claimed Over 6,000 Lives: UN

KABUL: (Middle East Press) According to The United Nations Human Rights over 6,000 people have been killed since violence erupted in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

The death toll in the fighting between Ukrainian army soldiers and pro-Russian forces released in a statement on Monday by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein

“More than 6,000 people have lost their lives in less than a year due to the fighting in eastern Ukraine,” Al Hussein said.

He slammed the deaths as a “merciless devastation of civilian lives and infrastructure” and called on both sides of the conflict to “halt the indiscriminate shelling and other hostilities that have created a terrible situation for civilians.”

Ivan Simonovic, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, also said that “the deliberate targeting of civilian areas may create a war crime and if widespread and systematic, a crime against humanity.”

The political crisis broke out in Ukraine in November 2013 when the country’s then President Viktor Yanukovych refrained from signing an Association Agreement with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Moscow.

In February 2014, Yanukovych moved to Russia after the security situation in the country seriously deteriorated.

About 14,000 people have been injured in the unrest.

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