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The bodies of 500 civilians have been found in the cellars of residential buildings in Debaltseve, US Permanent Representative to the UN Samantha Power has said.

The report by the UN Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic doesn’t include the hundreds of nameless victims who stayed in Debaltseve. Thus, last months 500 bodies were found after the siege was lifted. These 500 bodies were found in houses and cellars, where people were hiding from Russian shelling, Power said at a meeting of the UN Security Council on March 6.

She also said that leader of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic had said that everybody who had failed to leave the town would be under fire; even though the roads used to escape the town were under fire as well.

This meant that people were at risk both by staying and by leaving the town, Power added.