(Vatican Radio) Fighting is raging once again in eastern Ukraine with the United
Nations saying that civilian casualties have reached the highest level in a year.
The ongoing conflict between government forces and Russian-backed separatists has
also added to pressure on media, after personal details were released of thousands
of journalists.
Listen to Stefan Bos’ report:
Amid the turmoil, Ukrainian government forces could be seen trying to halt an apparent
attack by Russian-backed separatists around the town of Maryinka, near Donetsk in
eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian soldiers were seen responding to the attack with machine-gun fire and grenades.
The July 30 violence of which video footage just emerged, is one of several incidents
that has worried international observers with the U.N. already warning that the number
of civilian casualties in fighting in eastern Ukraine is back to last year's highs.
The UN Human Rights Office said it documented 69 civilian casualties in June, including
12 dead. This is nearly double the figure for May 2016 and the highest figure since
August 2015.
The figure rose further to 73 civilian casualties in July, including eight dead. In
total fighting between government forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed
at least more than 9,550 people since April 2014 when the conflict began.
CASUALTIES HIGHER
However the UN says the real number of casualties may be higher and the International
Crisis Group has said that "there is little doubt that the death toll is significantly
higher than either side admits."
U.N. officials believe that more than half of all the casualties recorded in the past
two months were caused by shelling. For Ukraine's army, July was the deadliest month
since August 2015. Authorities say at least 42 servicemen were killed and 181 wounded.
A cease-fire deal signed last year in Minsk, Belarus, was meant to halt the fighting.
But observers say many of its key points such as the complete withdrawal of heavy
weapons from the front line have not been implemented.
Yet it has become increasingly difficult for reporters to independently cover the
conflict: Website Myrotvorets ('Peacekeeper') has been able to publish names and addresses
of some 4,500 journalists and media personnel who it claimed had collaborated with
Russia-backed separatists in the east of the country.
These and other controversies prompted Deputy Minister of Information Policy Tetyana
Popova to announced her resignation. She says the journalists made a formal appeal
and I supported them. And after that the attacks began on those journalists who appealed,
on investigative journalists, but the attacks are not investigated sufficiently."
PRESIDENT PRESSURED
It has added to pressure on pro-Westen President Petro Poroshenko to prove he is serious
about democratic changes and reforms in the war torn nation.
Poroshenko did voice support for the journalists over the disclosure scandal, and
the Ukrainian Security Service promised to look into the matter.
Yet for now journalists claim to have received threatening phone calls.
In the most serious incident last month, a car bomb in Kiev killed Pavel Sheremet,
a pioneering journalist and outspoken critic of leaders in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.
Sheremet had won the Committee to Protect Journalists press freedom award and the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) prize for journalism
and democracy.
Colleagues including the editor of Ukrainian Pravda website where he worked said they
believed the July 20 killing was retribution for his work. Poroshenko condemned the
murder and even asked the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to help
find those behind the attack.
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