UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) – UNOCHA said that the majority of casualties – four fatalities and 37 injuries – were caused by shelling from various artillery systems including those banned by the Minsk agreements.
"June has been characterised by intense fighting in the conflict area in eastern Ukraine, resulting in the highest number of civilian casualties in a month since August 2015. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 69 conflict-related civilian casualties in June (12 fatalities and 57 injuries)," UNOCHA said in a press release to the humanitarian bulletin on the situation in Ukraine in June.
A total of 19 casualties – five killed and 14 injured – were caused by "mines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices," UNOCHA said.
"Since the beginning of the conflict, 21,880 people were wounded and 9,470 killed, up to 2,000 of the fatalities were civilians," UNOCHA concluded.
Kiev launched a military operation in Ukraine’s southeast in April 2014, after local residents refused to recognize the new Ukrainian authorities, which came to power as a result of what they viewed to be a coup.
In February 2015, a peace agreement was signed between Ukraine’s conflicting sides in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, however, sporadic shelling has continued in Ukraine despite the deal.
