10,000 Ukrainians Killed So Far in Two-Year War
Since the start of hostilities in eastern Ukraine, 10,000 Ukrainians have been killed and over twice as many wounded, the deputy head of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council has announced.
Fighting between pro-government factions and Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine's eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk has been ongoing since 2014. A ceasefire signed in early 2015 has come close to collapse on a handful of occasions and low-intensity fighting continues, however large-scale fighting has not been observed since last summer.
A recent flare-up of violence earlier this month killed the highest number of Ukrainian soldiers in a single day—seven, with nine more wounded—since a series of skirmishes 12 months ago.
According to Mikhail Koval, the first deputy secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, which advises the president, 10,000 Ukrainian citizens have died as a result of the two-year war and over 20,000 have been wounded. The figures match last month's statistics by the UN, which reported that 9,333 Ukrainians had been killed by the conflict in total and over 21,000 were injured.
Koval added that around 1.8 million have been forced to flee their homes near the contact line and since the start of this year alone, Ukraine has detected rebel use of tanks 699 times, which is a violation of the ceasefire agreement.
