UNITED NATIONS, August 17. /TASS/. A total of 6,832 people have been killed in fighting in eastern Ukraine since the conflict began and the death toll continues to rise, aid agencies said on Monday.
"In total, since mid-April 2014 to 27 July 2015, at least 6,832 people (both military and civilians) have been killed and 17,087 were injured in the conflict zone of eastern Ukraine," figures from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) show.
At the same time, the UN office said this was "a very conservative estimate" of the UN Human Rights Mission in Ukraine (HRMU) and the World Health Organization "based on available official data", noting that the HRMU and WHO believed the actual numbers of fatalities were "considerably higher".
According to the UN report, which covers the period up to August 14, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Ukraine has increased by 33,000 compared to four weeks ago, reaching more than1.4 million. The number of refugees who have fled to neighbouring countries has grown by almost 5,000.
By July 31, "925,500 Ukrainians had sought asylum, residence permits or other forms of legal stay in neighbouring countries - an increase of about 4,850 people," the report said. "Overall, more than 2.3 million Ukrainians, including IDPs and those who sought refuge abroad, have been uprooted by the conflict since April 2014," it added.