"As of today, at least 8,050 people have been killed since the outbreak of hostilities in eastern Ukraine in mid-April 2014. This includes Ukrainian armed forces, civilians and members of the armed groups, and is a conservative OHCHR estimate. We believe that actual figure could be considerably higher and we constantly work to fill in the gaps in casualty records," Ivan Simonovic said at a UN Human Rights Council Session in Geneva.
According to Simonovic, more than 1.5 million people are estimated by the Ukrainian authorities to be internally displaced.
Ukraine’s southeast has been engulfed in a conflict since April 2014, when Kiev launched a military operation against local independence supporters.
In February, the Normandy Four group, comprising Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France, to secure a peaceful settlement to the conflict in eastern Ukraine, worked out a ceasefire deal in Minsk, Belarus, signed by representatives from Kiev and the Donbas militias.
The Minsk deal, which stipulated a truce, prisoner swaps and constitutional changes, among other points, is due to be implemented by the end of 2015 but a number of crucial aspects to the accord remain to be fulfilled.
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