At least 1,000 civilians have been killed by land mines and other explosive ordnance in Eastern Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict in 2014, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a new situation report on the country on Wednesday
UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st May, 2019) At least 1,000 civilians have been killed by land mines and other explosive ordnance in Eastern Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict in 2014, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a new situation report on the country on Wednesday."Landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) have already killed over 1,000 men, women and children since 2014, when the conflict first erupted," the report said.
In 2018,�landmines and other explosive ordnance caused more than 40 percent of casualties among civilians, and such devices have already killed seven people and wounded 32 others since the beginning of this year, the report said.
Explosive ordnance remained the leading cause of death and injury for children in Eastern Ukraine in 2018, the report added.
The conflict in eastern Ukraine started in 2014, when Ukrainian authorities launched a military operation against the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics, which refused to recognize the new government in Kiev that came to power after what they considered to be a coup.
In 2015, a ceasefire agreement brokered by the leaders of the Normandy Four group - France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine - was reached in Minsk, but the situation has remained tense.
