by dpa correspondents
Geneva (dpa) - The flow of weapons, munitions and fighters from Russia into
eastern Ukraine has not abated - despite a ceasefire agreement earlier this
year - fuelling the conflict's flames, the UN Human Rights Office said
Wednesday in Geneva.
The Kiev government and pro-Russian separatists signed a ceasefire
agreement in February that called for foreign fighters and their arms to be
pulled out of the country.
Ukrainian authorities have been unable to control their border with Russia,
as the eastern part of the country is in the hands of pro-Russian
separatists.
The inflow from Russia was "leaving the situation highly flammable," UN
human rights monitors in Ukraine said in their latest report.
The UN experts also reported cases of killings, torture, unlawful
detentions and forced labour in the rebel-held Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
At the same time, the report stressed that the 2.9 million people living in
these regions were suffering because the Kiev government has been
restricting movement across the line of conflict.
This policy led "to an increased sense of isolation for many people,
impeding their access to medical care and social benefits, as well as
disrupting family and communal links," the UN rights office said.
More than 9,000 people have been killed and 20,700 have been injured since
the fighting escalated in April last year.
Recent casualties are largely due to unexploded and improvised bombs found
by individuals, according to the report.
After a ceasefire started at the start of September, the situation in
eastern Ukraine had stabilized. Some weapons have been withdrawn from the
conflict line. However, exchanges of fire have intensified since November.
Reporting by: Albert Otti in Vienna, Margarite Clarey in Geneva and
Friedemann Kohler in Moscow | Editing by: Niels C Sorrells
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