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Developments in eastern Ukraine

Over 4,000 killed in conflict in eastern Ukraine — OSCE envoy

The crisis remains very dangerous for the stability in the region and in Europe, special envoy of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said

Damaged house in the aftermath of a shelling attack in Luhansk region Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS

Damaged house in the aftermath of a shelling attack in Luhansk region

© Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS

VIENNA, November 20. /TASS/. More than 4,000 have been killed and tens of thousands of people have been injured since the conflict erupted in eastern Ukraine, the special envoy of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said on Thursday.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to leave the war-torn region, Heidi Tagliavini told a session of the OSCE Permanent Council.

The crisis remains very dangerous for the stability in the region and in Europe, she said.

Over the past two days, Ukrainian troops have opened gunfire at OSCE monitors two times, the Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) said in a report on Wednesday.

Tagliavini called for a comprehensive dialogue on the settlement of the situation in the east of the country. The comprehensive political dialogue, not the dialogue on the basis of the privileged regime is required, she said.

According to her, the dialogue can consist not only of official-level discussions, but also of roundtables that would involve a large number of participants that represent the east Ukrainian regions.

The Kiev authorities launched a military operation in mid-April against militias in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions to regain control over the territories that sought independence.

The parties to the Ukrainian conflict agreed on a ceasefire at talks mediated by the OSCE on September 5 in the Belarusian capital Minsk. The ceasefire took effect the same day but has been reportedly violated.

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