GENEVA: More than 6,000 people have been killed since violence erupted in Ukraine last April, the UN rights chief said Monday, decrying a "merciless devastation of civilian lives and infrastructure."
The UN's ninth report on the situation in violence-wracked Ukraine paints a bleak picture of developments in the country and warns there has been a "serious escalation" of the conflict since the beginning of the year.
"More than 6,000 lives have now been lost in less than a year due to the fighting in eastern Ukraine," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement.
He called on all sides to respect a fragile Minsk peace deal, and "halt the indiscriminate shelling and other hostilities that have created a dreadful situation for civilians."
Speaking in Geneva for the launch of the report, Ivan Simonovic, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, said "the deliberate targeting of civilian areas may constitute a war crime and if widespread and systematic, a crime against humanity."
Their comments came amid a relative calm along the frontline in eastern Ukraine that has raised hopes the sides are moving towards implementing the shaky European-brokered ceasefire.
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