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Almost 1000 deaths in Ukraine since truce declared

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights says almost one thousand people have died since a truce came into place in Ukraine.

Fires burn in Kiev as 26 people are killed in violence
(AAP)

A report by the UN states that civilians have continued to be killed in the country's east, and the number of internally displaced people has risen despite the announcement of a ceasefire on September 5.

United Nations spokesman Gianni Magazzeni said the presence of sophisticated weaponry and foreign fighters were directly affecting the human rights situation in the country.

"We have also seen increasing reports of torture, arbitrary detention, summary executions, forced labour, sexual violence including some very graphic descriptions of individuals that were held by armed groups and have been able to talk in freedom with our monitoring missions and have revealed very very disturbing details of their situations in conditions of detention," he said.

A breakdown of law and order in rebel-held Donetsk and Luhansk has seen the number of internally displaced Ukranians fleeing the fighting jump from 275,489 to 466,829 in the period from September 18 to November 19.

But the UN said some positive measures have been adopted by the Ukrainian government to deal with the crisis, including the passing of laws on corruption and internally displaced persons.

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Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko recently signed a decree tasking the government to develop a national human rights strategy for Ukraine by January 1 2015, a move welcomed by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.

Ukraine and some western countries accuse Russia of destabilising Ukraine by providing Russian rebels wanting to create a breakaway republic in eastern Ukraine with money, arms and reinforcements.

More 4,300 people have been killed since mid-April.

The deaths come after rebels rose up, a month after Russia responded to the overthrow of a Moscow-backed president in Kiev by annexing the Crimea region.

The West has imposed sanctions on Russia over the conflict.


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