Destroyed Ukraine military hardware and the bodies of slain soldiers near Debaltseve. February, 2015.
Fighting between government forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 9,400 people since April 2014.
Comment: RFE/RL has no journalistic integrity. In fairness, this sentence might read, "between American-backed forces and Russian-backed separatists". Or, "coup-junta-supporting forces vs. coup-junta-rejecting forces". Or, "neo-Nazi terrorists vs. anti-fascist freedom fighters." Any would be better than what they actually wrote.
The UN Human Rights Office said on August 3 that it documented 69 civilian casualties in June, including 12 dead.
This is nearly double the figure for May 2016 and the highest figure since August 2015.
The figure rose further to 73 civilian casualties in July, including eight dead.
More than half of all the casualties recorded in the past two months were caused by shelling, according to the UN Human Rights Office.
"Civilians are once again having to flee to improvised bomb shelters in their basements, sometimes overnight, with increasing frequency," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said.
A cease-fire deal signed in Minsk in February 2015 was meant to halt the fighting, but many of its key points -- including the complete withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line -- have not been implemented.
Comment: What you won't hear in Western propaganda reports is that the vast majority of civilian deaths are caused by Ukrainian forces indiscriminately shelling residential areas in east Ukraine. There would be NO civilian deaths if Ukraine abided by the Minsk agreements. End of story.