You're reading: UN warns millions in east Ukraine face life or death struggle as cold sets in

A United Nations report released today warns that more than five million people living in areas controlled by Kremlin-backed insurgents are facing a life or death struggle through the harsh Ukrainian winter.

With sub-zero temperatures fast approaching, children and the elderly in the country’s east are particularly likely to suffer – with essential medical, heating and electrical infrastructure damaged during the conflict and social services disrupted by the government’s withdrawal from Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

“The conflict is in its ninth month and the situation is becoming increasingly dire for the population still living in the east,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein as he launched the report.

“The situation of many people, including those held against their will, in areas under the control of the armed groups may well be life-threatening.”

Read the story: “Undernourished psychiatric patients in the war zone get UN aid.”

The report also found that from 4,707 people killed in the conflict since April, at least 1,357 of those had been killed since a ceasefire was declared in September – almost a third of the conflict’s total casualties.

It details a catalog of human rights violations committed by both Ukrainian and Russian-backed forces, including indiscriminate shelling, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and ill-treatment.

The report leveled accusations of killings, torture, sexual violence, forced labor, extortion and property seizure at separatist forces, saying armed groups were targeting those they suspect of holding pro-Ukrainian views.

It goes on to describe how the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic had forcibly mobilized civilians and threatened the death penalty in order to intimidate and harass the population under their control.

Blaming the flow of sophisticated heavy weaponry and foreign fighters from the Russian Federation, the report finds that there has been a complete breakdown in law and order in the east. Separatist fighters continue to hold more than a thousand people they agreed to release during the last set of peace negotiations in Minsk.

On the Ukrainian side, High Commissioner Zeid took a dim view of the government’s decision to withdraw state assistance from the self-proclaimed separatist republics, saying the safety of citizens unable or unwilling to relocate had been jeopardized by the move.

“The government of Ukraine remains responsible for protecting the human rights of all Ukrainians, including the right to health, education and social security, in all its territory, including areas it does not fully control. I urge the government to carefully consider the human rights impact of this decision.”

The UN was similarly critical of the lack of progress made by government investigations into the shooting of protesters in Kyiv and violent clashes in Odesa, Kharkiv and Mariupol this year.