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dipsydoodle

(42,239 posts) Wed Jun 18, 2014, 10:46 AM Jun 2014

U.N. Report Details Casualties in Eastern Ukraine

Source: NYT

GENEVA — Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands have fled their homes amid rising violence, insecurity and crime in areas of eastern Ukraine that are under the control of pro-Russian armed groups, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

A total of 356 people were known to have been killed since mid-April, Gianni Magazzeni, a senior United Nations human rights official, told reporters in Geneva as he presented the latest in a series of monthly reports by the United Nations’ team of 34 monitors in Ukraine.

Fighting between the Ukrainian Army and armed groups in the eastern areas of Donetsk and Luhansk has increased in regularity and intensity as the government in Kiev seeks to assert its authority and has led to a growing number of civilian casualties, the United Nations reported, noting that separatist groups had acknowledged that their ranks include fighters from Chechnya and the Caucasus.

The dead included 257 civilians and 86 Ukrainian military personnel, including the 49 who were killed last week when separatists shot down a military transport plane with a shoulder-launched missile as it approached Luhansk airport, Mr. Magazzeni said. The report did not offer additional detail about the remaining 13 deaths.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/19/world/europe/un-report-details-casualties-in-eastern-ukraine.html?_r=0

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U.N. Report Details Casualties in Eastern Ukraine (Original Post) dipsydoodle Jun 2014 OP

"34,000 Ukrainians have been displaced. Most were from Crimea, where people who speak Ukrainian or pampango Jun 2014 #1

Strip all the hot ideology and nationalism away, and this is exactly what Obama and Kerry saw. freshwest Jun 2014 #2

pampango

(24,692 posts)

1. "34,000 Ukrainians have been displaced. Most were from Crimea, where people who speak Ukrainian or

Reply to dipsydoodle (Original post)

Wed Jun 18, 2014, 11:41 AM

Jun 2014

do not want to change their nationality to Russian face discrimination and intimidation, Mr. Magazzeni said.

“They are mostly concerned about security: people report staying in cellars to keep away from the fighting, facing harassment at checkpoints and fearing the increasingly common abductions, threats and extortion,” the monitors reported.

“We are talking of a reign of fear, if not of terror” in the pockets of territory around Donetsk and Luhansk controlled by armed separatists and now experiencing a state of total lawlessness, Mr. Magazzeni said, citing cases of people shot at checkpoints for no reason and members of armed groups who were summarily shot because they no longer wanted to fight.

“The escalation in criminal activity resulting in human rights abuses is no longer limited to targeting journalists, elected representatives, local politicians, civil servants and civil society activists,” the report stated. “Abductions, detentions, acts of ill-treatment and torture, and killings by armed groups are now affecting the broader population of the two eastern regions.”

Nice find, dipsydoodle. Thanks for posting it.

freshwest

(53,661 posts)

2. Strip all the hot ideology and nationalism away, and this is exactly what Obama and Kerry saw.

Reply to dipsydoodle (Original post)

Wed Jun 18, 2014, 01:49 PM

Jun 2014

It's what I suspected, no matter if anyone was pro or con on the actions. A hideous state of affairs, not easily ended.

More trouble but promise of relief from the links on the page, although the status quo in the region is unbearable. Someone blew up a pipeline to make more trouble. Then the Ukrainian goverment wants a ceasefire.

Very hard to justify this keeping people under a state of siege hiding from their alleged liberators. This piece has firmed up my feelings on this; yet we should not, and will not, put boots on the ground there.

Thanks for posting D, you bring so many unbiased pieces here no matter what your personal opinion on this may be.

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