GENEVA, June 13. /TASS/. More than 10,000 people have been killed and about 24,000 injured in Ukraine since the conflict in the east began in mid-April, 2014, the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a quarterly report on Ukraine, published in Kiev and Geneva on Tuesday.

"Between 16 February and 15 May 2017, OHCHR recorded 193 conflict-related civilian casualties: 36 deaths and 157 injuries, 42 per cent of which were caused by shelling," the report reads. "This is a 48 per cent increase compared with the previous reporting period of 16 November 2016 to 15 February 2017, when OHCHR recorded 130 civilian casualties (23 deaths and 107 injuries; 65 per cent caused by shelling). In total, from 14 April 2014 to 15 May 2017, OHCHR recorded 34,056 casualties among civilians, the Ukrainian military and members of armed groups. This includes 10,090 people killed, including 2,777 civilians, and 23,966 injured."

The report’s authors point to the aggravating social-economic crisis in Ukraine’s east.

"Despite numerous consultations at various levels, the Government has not yet addressed the issue of payment of pensions to all eligible citizens of Ukraine. At least 160,000 pensioners residing in territory controlled by armed groups did not receive their pensions between December 2014 and December 2016157 because they were not registered as IDPs, as required by Government resolutions adopted in November 2014.158 Those who did register as IDPs were subjected to a cumbersome verification procedure159 which, in 2016, resulted in the discontinuance of pension payments for 43 per cent of eligible IDPs (over 400,000 people). In its 2016 annual report, the Pension Fund of Ukraine presented this result as "a cost-saving achievement."

The authors stress a "lack of progress or tangible results in investigations and legal proceedings connected to conflict-related cases, including those which are high profile, contribute to the sense of stagnation of the conflict."

"Three years after the violence at Maidan in Kyiv and Odesa, which together claimed the lives of at least 169 people, no one has been held accountable for these deaths," OHCHR said.