United Nations, Dec 13 : An uptick in armed hostilities in Ukraine has resulted in more deaths and new damages to critical water infrastructure storing dangerous chemicals – posing a grave threat to human life and the environment, according to a new United Nations report.
The report of the Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, published on Tuesday, warned that that daily ceasefire violations coupled with falling temperatures further aggravated a dire human rights and humanitarian situation on both sides of the contact line.
“The hostilities have never really stopped, affecting, in one way or another, the daily lives of millions in the conflict zone and in the country as whole, with the heaviest burden falling on those living in the immediate vicinity to the contact line,” stated Fiona Frazer, Head of the Monitoring Mission.
“As one civilian told my colleagues, ‘it is now worse than in 2014 because we can no longer bear it,’” she added.
From 16 August to 15 November, the mission recorded 15 conflict-related civilian deaths and 72 injuries – with 20 individual cases of killings, deprivation of liberty, enforced disappearances, torture and conflict-related sexual violence committed on both sides of the contact line, illustrating the prevailing atmosphere of impunity for grave violations in the conflict zone.
UNI
