Armed hostilities on rise in Ukraine, UN mission says

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- A United Nations report published Tuesday warned that armed hostilities are on the rise again in Ukraine.

The report of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said that the return to increased fighting "has resulted in more deaths and new damages to critical water infrastructure storing dangerous chemicals which pose a grave threat to human life and the environment."

It added that "daily ceasefire violations coupled with falling temperatures further aggravated a dire human rights and humanitarian situation on both sides of the contact line."

The mission recorded 15 conflict-related civilian deaths and 72 injuries from Aug. 16 to Nov. 15 this year. In total, at least 2,818 civilians have been killed, and up to 9,000 others injured since the start of the conflict in April 2014.

The report also provided details of 20 individual cases of killings, deprivation of liberty, enforced disappearances, torture, and conflict-related sexual violence committed on both sides of the contact line.

"The hostilities have never really stopped, affecting, in one way or another, the daily lives of millions in the conflict zone and in the country as whole," Fiona Frazer, the head of mission, said in a statement accompanying the report. Enditem