Real Human Costs of Russian Aggression in Ukraine Still Uncounted, UN Says

Paul Goble

                Staunton, September 16 – At a minimum, 9640 people have been killed and 22,431 wounded as a result of military actions in eastern Ukraine, according to the United Nations monitoring mission’s latest quarterly report. But the document notes that the indirect costs of the clashes there on the civilian population remains “unknown.”

The report which includes losses both among Ukrainian defenders and pro-Moscow militia forces, was released in Geneva yesterday and is available online at ohchr.org/RU/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20496&LangID=R and is discussed in detail at http://graniru.org/Politics/World/Europe/Ukraine/m.254573.html.

Particularly disturbing is the UN’s finding that the number of combat losses for the last three months has gone up by 66 percent to 28 killed in action and 160 wounded. The report says that most of these losses were along the front line but adds that there were more losses as a result of mines laid near those lines.

And it specifies that “the number of civilians who have died as a result of secondary consequences of military actions, including the lack of water, medicines or healthcare institutions remains unknown,” implicitly suggesting that the numbers involved in this category is likely quite large.

As the UN has done in earlier quarterly reports, the international organization also points to “the deteriorating situation with regard to human rights” in occupied Crimea. In particular, it notes that law enforcement organs there “continue to question and persecute people for the expression of views which are considered extremist.”