At Least 4,634 Killed in Ukraine Since Start of Internal Conflict: UN

UNITED NATIONS, December 13 (Sputnik) – Over 4,600 people have died as a result of the internal conflict in Ukraine, where Kiev forces launched a military operation against independence supporters in the southeast earlier this year, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has informed.

"At least 4,634 killed…and 10,243 wounded in eastern Ukraine as of 7 December," the OCHA said in a Friday Ukraine Situation Report, which covers the period between November 29 and December 12, 2014.

According to the OCHA, an estimated 5.2 million people currently live in the conflict-affected areas of Ukraine, which is approximately one ninth of the country's total population.

Over 542,000 have been internally displaced and over 567,000 have fled to neighboring countries as of December 12, the OCHA said in its situation report.

Last week, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced the introduction of a "silence regime" in the southeast of the country beginning December 9, in a bid to renew ceasefire efforts.

A ceasefire agreement was reached between representatives of Kiev and Ukraine's self-proclaimed people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk (DPR and LPR) in September, during a meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine in Minsk, but both sides have continued to accuse each other of violating the truce.

New Contact Group talks are expected but the date has not been confirmed yet.