Geneva, Jan 16 (EFE).- The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) on Tuesday denounced a “steep increase” in the number of Ukrainian civilians killed in recent weeks amid intensified Russian missile and drone attacks.
Ukrainians bring tributes and flowers at a bus stop near the ruins of a residential building destroyed in a missile strike on 14 January 2023, in Dnipro, southeastern Ukraine, 14 January 2024, amid Russia’s invasion. EFE-EPA/ARSEN DZODZAIEV
The international organization reported a 26 percent increase in verified civilian casualties in December compared to November, “an alarming reversal of a downward trend in casualties observed earlier in 2023.”
“In the course of just 10 days between 29 December 2023 and 8 January, hundreds of civilians were killed or wounded in drone and missile attacks across the country,” the agency said in a statement, adding that the actual increase in the casualties was likely to be higher as reports of 86 killed and 416 injured were yet to be verified.
During the first week of January, a Russian missile attack on the small town of Pokrovsk and Rivne village, located near the front line, left six adults and five children buried in the rubble when their homes were hit, the UN agency said.
Meanwhile, in the city of Novomoskovsk, the blast wave of a Russian missile strike injured 31 civilians, it added.
“Civilian casualties had been steadily decreasing in 2023 but the wave of attacks in late December and early January violently interrupted that trend,” Danielle Bell, the head of the UN’s monitoring mission, said.
“These attacks sow death and destruction on Ukraine’s civilians who have endured profound losses from Russia’s full-scale invasion for almost two years now,” she added.
The recent attacks have occurred at a time when temperatures have dropped sharply throughout Ukraine with the arrival of extremely cold weather, “making the already difficult situation even harder for vulnerable civilians,” the HRMMU said. EFE
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