You're reading: UN report: Reign of fear and terror inflicted by armed groups on population in Ukraine’s east

Atrocities by well-organized and well-equipped armed groups are continuing in Ukraine's east, they are trying to impose the reign of fear and terror on the local population, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in its report on Ukraine.

“A total breakdown of law and order and a reign of fear and terror have been inflicted by armed groups on the population of eastern Ukraine,” the report reads.

The report says that impunity in the areas under the control of the armed groups in the east has led to the collapse of the rule of law and that the deteriorating situation in eastern Ukraine is impacting adversely on the rest of the country.

The report documents how these armed groups continue to abduct, detain, torture and execute people.

It lists examples of some of the 812 people who have been abducted or detained by these armed groups in Donetsk and Luhansk regions since mid-April.

“Some of those detained by the armed groups are local politicians, public officials and employees of the local coal mining industry; the majority are ordinary citizens, including teachers, journalists, members of the clergy and students,” the document reads.

The monitoring mission has received numerous reports of acts of ill-treatment or torture of these detainees, killings by the armed groups, use the detainees to dig trenches or send them to fight on the front lines as well as ‘military tribunals’.

In addition, the Office of the High Commissioner reports cases of people being detained by the Ukrainian armed forces and some cases of Ukrainian nationals who allegedly have been taken and are currently detained in the Russian Federation on various charges.

In response to the actions by the armed groups, there has been an acceleration of government security operations during July in the areas still under the control of the armed groups, with heavy fighting located in and around population centres, resulting in loss of life, property and infrastructure and causing thousands to flee.

“The reports of increasingly intense fighting in Donetsk and Luhansk regions are extremely alarming, with both sides employing heavy weaponry in built-up areas, including artillery, tanks, rockets and missiles,” the OHCHR Web site quoted UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay as saying when presenting the report.

The report says that as many as 1,129 people have been killed and 3,442 injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the anti-terrorist operation in mid-April 2014 until July 26.

Both sides must take great care to prevent more civilians from being killed or injured, Pillay said. Already increasing numbers of people are being killed with serious damage to civilian infrastructure, which – depending on circumstances – could amount to violations of international humanitarian law, she added.

Since the end of the ceasefire on June 30, the government has regained control of large parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions that were previously under the control of armed groups, according to the report.

“But this has come at great cost, with increasing numbers of people being killed and injured and serious damage to property and infrastructure,” the document reads.

“As the severity of the violence increased in the east and the crisis there dragged on, opinions became more polarized in Ukraine. As a result, the level of hate speech has escalated dramatically, especially on social media, but also in demonstrations and protests and even in Parliament,” the report says.

The latest report covers the period from June 8 to July 15 2014 and is the fourth in a series of reports produced by the 39-person United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission (HRMMU) deployed in Ukraine by the High Commissioner for Human Rights in mid-March.