DONETSK, September 24 (RIA Novosti) - Some 1,300 residents of the Donetsk region have lost their lives as a result of the armed conflict in Ukraine's southeast, Elena Petryaeva, director of Donetsk region's health department, said on Tuesday.
Among the killed were 23 children under the age of 18, Petryaeva told reporters. Some 3,500 have been wounded. "These are the people that have been registered in the region's medical institutions," she said.
According to the Donetsk mayor's office, attacks continue in the city, despite the ceasefire agreement, local authorities informed.
On Monday, Deputy Prime Minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic Andrei Purgin stated that some 4,000 people had lost their lives in Donetsk region since the beginning of the armed conflict.
In mid-April, Kiev authorities launched a military operation against independence supporters in southeastern Ukraine. According to the United Nations, about 3,000 people have been killed and more than 6,000 injured since the start of the conflict.
A ceasefire agreement between Kiev and independence supporters in eastern Ukraine was established on September 5 during a trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine meeting in Minsk. Early Saturday morning, the Contact Group drew up a memorandum of nine provisions to regulate the implementation of the agreement.
