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UN report counts east Ukraine death toll at nearly 4,400

The total recorded was based on reports from the UN monitoring mission in Ukraine and casualties among civilians and military might be much higher since not all cases were brought to light

GENEVA, December 15. /TASS/. The death toll from conflict in Ukraine reached 4,364 and wounded were numbered at 10,064 by November 30, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said on Monday in its eighth report since hostilities broke out in the country's now war-torn east.

But this figure might not tell the whole story, the agency's report said. The total recorded was based on reports from the UN monitoring mission in Ukraine and casualties among civilians and military might be much higher since not all cases were brought to light. Fighting prevented access to many sites where more bodies might be found, the review went on, adding that more than 1,000 victims lay in morgues unidentified.

The report's assessment says that between November 1 and November 30, observers determined more than 100 incidents of "nonselective" shelling of residential neighbourhoods during that time.

These included the shelling of a football ground in Donetsk on November 5 when an adult and a child were killed and four children wounded. The report noted no evidence of visible progress in investigations by Ukrainian authorities of such neighbourhood bombardments said to total 300.

Statistics relate 285 women killed between mid-April, when Kiev launched military operations in eastern Ukraine, and November 25. Of these, 116 died after a ceasefire agreement was reached on September 5.

The report urged an end to military hostilities and shelling, calling on the Ukrainian government to prevent excessive use of military force to avoid civilian deaths.