GENEVA (Sputnik) – More than 8,000 people, including civilians, have been killed in the Ukrainian conflict since it was broke out in April 2014, the assistant UN secretary-general for human rights said Tuesday.
"As of today, at least 8,050 people have been killed since the outbreak of hostilities in eastern Ukraine in mid-April 2014. This includes Ukrainian armed forces, civilians and members of the armed groups, and is a conservative OHCHR estimate. We believe that actual figure could be considerably higher and we constantly work to fill in the gaps in casualty records," Ivan Simonovic said at a UN Human Rights Council Session in Geneva.
According to Simonovic, more than 1.5 million people are estimated by the Ukrainian authorities to be internally displaced.
In February, the Normandy Four group, comprising Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France, to secure a peaceful settlement to the conflict in eastern Ukraine, worked out a ceasefire deal in Minsk, Belarus, signed by representatives from Kiev and the Donbas militias.
The Minsk deal, which stipulated a truce, prisoner swaps and constitutional changes, among other points, is due to be implemented by the end of 2015 but a number of crucial aspects to the accord remain to be fulfilled.
