Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office to the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG) on the settlement of the Donbas crisis, Ambassador Martin Sajdik says that the number of civilians killed in the east of Ukraine January through May 2017 soared by 120% year-over-year, according to the Belarussian telegraph agency BELTA.
”This has been confirmed by OSCE reports,” he said at a meeting of the TCG`s humanitarian subgroup in Minsk on Wednesday, May 24, BELTA reported.
”This is largely the result of the ongoing use of heavy weapons in five hot spots and a delay with landmine clearance,” he added.
The first days of May were most deadly for the civilian population in the conflict zone in Donbas within a long while, he said.
He said that several zones, namely Avdiyivka, Yasynuvata, areas near Mariupol, and Svitlodarsk, account for 85% of all the violations.
Sajdik said he was convinced that such violations and hostilities might end if the parties to the conflict were committed.
He called on the parties to the conflict in the east of Ukraine to respect human life and abide by the peace agreements.
