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GENEVA, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- With 9,640 people killed and 22,431 injured in eastern Ukraine since the conflict began in mid-April 2014, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warned Thursday that the situation is not showing any signs of improving.
Citing a new report produced by its local office in Ukraine and covering the period from mid-May to mid-August this year, the human rights office warned that the disregard for the protection of civilians by both sides of the conflict continues to severely shake those trapped in conflict-affected areas.
"While the situation has improved since the ceasefire was restored on September 1, the situation along the contact line remains deeply unstable, as demonstrated by the incidents which took place last weekend. In fact there is a real risk that a new outbreak of violence could happen at any time," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein in a statement.
"The escalation of hostilities along the contact line over the summer was a sharp reminder that the situation in eastern Ukraine deserves much more attention," he added.
This upsurge in violence is reflected by a 66 percent increase in the number of conflict-related civilian casualties in the period under review.
During those three months, 28 civilians lost their lives, with a further 160 sustaining injuries.
Over half of total casualties resulted from shelling across the contact line, with many also killed or wounded by mines, explosive remnants of war and booby traps.
These worrying trends are the result of the close proximity of government forces and armed groups at the contact line, the report found.
Those civilians living within the conflict-area not only lack protection but also access to basic services including humanitarian aid, it warned.
"Additional efforts are needed to find a lasting solution to this crisis and put an end to the suffering of the civilian population," Zeid noted.
"Human rights and justice are what people need, not further deaths and more intense hatred and destruction," he concluded.
The report, produced by the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, is the 15th of its kind.
