UN warns Russia, Ukraine of ‘dangerous limbo’
June 6, 2015, 4:22 am

The UN has blamed both Russia and Ukraine for putting civilians at risk, and called for both to observe the Minsk ceasefire [Xinhua]

Alexander Hug, deputy head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) monitoring mission, said both sides were putting civilians at risk.

“Civilians continue to bear an unacceptable price in this conflict,” Hug told an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Friday.

“They [civilians] are killed and wounded, as both sides continue to place military positions in and around civilian infrastructure. Their property and livelihoods have been destroyed,” Hug said.

According to the UN, more than 6,400 civilians have been killed in eastern Ukraine in the past year; 400 of those were killed following the Minsk ceasefire which began in mid-February.

According to the ceasefire, agreed to after long negotiations between Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany in Minsk, Belorusia, heavy artillery was to have been pulled back from the front lines to create a buffer zone.

But both the Ukrainian military and pro-Russian separatist rebels say they will not withdraw heavy artillery until the opposite side does so first. On Tuesday, Ukrainian forces said their positions were attacked by pro-Russian militia, while the separatist rebels accused Kiev of firing Grad rockets into their territory.

There are fears that such breaches could lead to a complete collapse in the ceasefire.

That would prove to be a nightmare scenario for UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman who told the Security Council that he is concerned there is complete lack of humanitarian access in eastern Ukraine.

“The continued non-implementation of various provisions of the agreement entails dangerous limbo.”

According to UN statistics, more than 850,000 Ukrainians have sought asylum or refugee status in European countries. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees says that there are now more than 1.3 million IDPs – internally displaced peoples – within Ukraine.

“We are either looking at a return to a deepening, intractable conflict or a momentary upsurge in parts of the conflict,” Feltman said.

“We cannot afford either scenario.”

The UN Security Council concluded its emergency session by urging both Russia and Ukraine to observe the tenets of the Minsk ceasefire.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies