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UN Reports Uptick in Civilian Casualties in Ukraine

by Associated Press

   MINSK, BELARUS --

   The United Nations says the number of civilian casualties in the
   conflict in eastern Ukraine has surged in the past three months.

   Fighting between Ukrainian government troops and Russia-backed
   separatists has killed more than 10,000 people since 2014. Hostilities
   have subsided since both sides signed a truce in 2015 but sporadic
   fighting persists and no progress has been made towards a political
   solution.

   The U.N.'s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a
   report published Wednesday that 12 civilians were killed and 93 injured
   between mid-May and mid-August, which is 30 percent more than in the
   previous three-month period.

   The U.N. said it lays the blame both on Moscow and Kiev for the uptick
   in hostilities.