UN human rights chief warns of ‘dangerous escalation’ in Ukraine

The United Nations’ human rights chief warned Tuesday of a “dangerous escalation” of fighting in eastern Ukraine, citing figures that show at least 224 civilian deaths in the three weeks ending Feb. 1.

In recent months, a cease-fire agreed to by Kiev and the pro-Russian rebels has all but collapsed, with the pace of shelling and gun battles returning to pre-truce levels. The death toll, which plateaued until December, is once again rising. More than 5,385 people have been killed and 12,235 others wounded since the separatist uprising erupted in mid-April, the U.N. said.

“Bus stops and public transport, marketplaces, schools and kindergartens, hospitals and residential areas have become battlegrounds in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine — in clear breach of humanitarian law that governs the conduct of armed conflicts,” said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein.

In the deadliest such incident, at least 30 people were killed when rockets struck the city of Mariupol last week. Civilian buses have been struck on multiple occasions.

“The protection of civilians by all parties to the conflict must be of the utmost priority,” said Hussein, who noted that shelling killed civilians in government-held territory and rebel-held regions. 

Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in the east remains grave, Hussein added. Food, water and power cuts are common and medical supplies are in short supply. Winter weather has compounded the difficulties facing the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people in Ukraine and refugees who have fled across the border with Russia.

Another round of negotiations on Saturday among Ukrainian, Russian and rebel officials in Belarus briefly raised hopes of a renewed cease-fire to stem the violence, but the talks broke up without progress. Fighting resumed soon after.

On Tuesday, Kiev's military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said that five Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 27 wounded in fighting with pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine's eastern regions over the past 24 hours.

He said fighting has been particularly intense around the town of Debaltseve, a major rail and road junction northeast of the city of Donetsk, which government troops are still holding.

"The [separatist] fighters are unsuccessfully trying to surround units of the Ukrainian armed forces," Lysenko said at a briefing. "Despite constant shelling and attacks, Debaltseve remains under the control of Ukrainian forces.”

The West continues to blame Moscow for arming and backing the rebels, citing satellite imagery that they say indicates dozens of Russian tanks in Ukraine's east. Russian President Vladimir Putin has vehemently denied the allegations.

Over the weekend, reports surfaced that the U.S. was considering providing lethal military aid to Ukrainian forces, a step it has thus far declined to take. Several of its allies, including Germany, oppose sending arms.

With wire services