Four hundred and seventy-eight civilians, including seven children, have been killed in Kiev’s military crackdown on the eastern regions of Ukraine, the country’s deputy health minister said on Thursday.
"The amount on civilian casualties is, unfortunately, greater than the military ones,” Vasily Lazoryshynets, deputy health minister, said as cited by ITAR-TASS.
“In the area of the operation in eastern Ukraine, 478 civilians have died, including 30 women and seven children,” he said.
According to Lazoryshynets , a further 1,392 people were injured in the fighting, with 104 women and 14 children among them.
“Two hundred and seventy-nine currently remain in hospital,” he added.
Earlier in July, Ukraine’s National Security Council said that 200 soldiers and law enforcement officers had been killed and over 600 injured during the so-called “anti-terrorist operation.”
Later on Thursday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Health reduced the
figure on the civilian death toll given by Lazoryshynets.
According to its statement, the deputy minister “only
provided the latest statistics on the overall mortality level in
the areas [where the operation is taking place].”
However, the ministry failed to release any other data on the
amount of civilian casualties in Ukraine’s south-east.
The crackdown on the south-east started in mid-April, after
people in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions refused to recognize
the coup-imposed authorities in Kiev and demanded federalization.
The Ukrainian military and National Guard resorted to airstrikes
and shelling in their struggle against the self-defense forces in
Donetsk and Lugansk.
The operation stalled for some time, but then Kiev achieved major
military gains last week by taking control of important militia
strongholds – the cities of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk.
Government forces are now preparing to storm the regional
capitals of Donetsk and Lugansk, with an adviser to Interior
Minister Stanislav Rechinsky promising that the military
operation would be successfully completed in a month.
E. Ukraine's Lugansk: From busy city to ghost town
Lavrov: Ukraine crisis reminds of Belgrade
bombing in 1999
Disregard of civilians by Kiev troops saw the number of Ukrainian
refugees fleeing to Russia reaching 110,000 people, while 54,400
others were displaced within Ukraine, according to stats from the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
A report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs says over 4.5 million civilians remain in the war zone in
Ukraine.
Russia, which announced a state of emergency in six of its
regions due to the arrival of Ukrainian refugees, has urged Kiev
to take the UN’s concerns into account.
Ukrainian refugees precipitate emergency
situation in 6 Russian regions
Moscow has demanded the Ukrainian authorities “take immediate
steps to de-escalate the violence, ensure the early beginning of
ceasefire negotiations and improve the humanitarian
situation,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.