UN: War in Donbass takes 8,000 lives

(Interfax – September 18, 2015)

At least 8,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the hostilities in eastern Ukraine, Christof Heyns, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary execution, has said.

Eight thousand people have died, and according to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission, most of them have been civilians. Artillery shelling incidents are observed on both sides, and shells hit civilian areas, Heyns said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Friday. He expressed concern about the deployment of military hardware and artillery of the warring sides in populated localities, which caused multiple casualties.

In the opinion of Heyns, attention given to relations between the servicemen and the civilian population was insufficient.

There is no system to protect people from artillery fire, he said, noting that the ceasefire had been on for several weeks and that was an inspiring factor yet a way to protect the civilian population in the case the hostilities resumed needed to be found.